Sia Partners and Finastra Name Winners of Student Competition

At a flagship award ceremony, Finastra, Sia Partners, Google Cloud, HSBC Continental Europe, Pépite France and Manaos announced the winners of the Finance and Innovation for Good competition. The initiative invited entrepreneurial students in France to tackle a major challenge around finance for good. Over the past six months, the partners have supported students with their projects from ideation to development. The overall winners are… 1^st place: Sumpler, a solution that facilitates digital receipts at the point of sale, bringing all the data into one place on the banking app. 2^nd place: Yam, a digital banking app focused on improving financial inclusion in Africa, including the illiterate population, with some unique digital accessibility innovations. 3^rd place: Aphaïa, an equity crowdfunding platform focused on supporting natural capital projects in emerging countries. The winners of the special project prizes are…

• Best technical achievement: Eira, an impact investment app focused on generating good financial returns while having a positive impact on the planet.
• Fastest go-to-market solution: Tetard Capital, a social media platform enabling startups to access funding by connecting them with Gen Z investors.
• Best social impact innovation: Studlend, a solution which helps US-based students fund their education by connecting them with investors in Europe.
• Best education innovation: Diwali, a solution which provides financial education for youth, with a focus on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing and green finance.
• Best socioeconomic impact: Raivel, a platform which connects social economy organizations with banks and other fundraising solutions.
• Best financial expertise: Greenvest, an ESG investment platform which includes social features such as voting.

  The three winners were rewarded with prizes from the partners of 7000€, 5000€ and 3000€, while the special project winners received prizes worth 1000€. Thomas Rocafull, Partner at SIA Partners said, "The competition provided students with an opportunity to tackle important issues and learn about real-world applications in a business setting. Students play an integral role in shaping our future, and this was apparent with the extremely high quality of finished projects. By partnering with industry experts like Finastra, we gave students the necessary education and tools which resulted in a variety of innovative ideas to increase sustainability and inclusivity in financial services." Chirine Ben Zaied, Head of Innovation at Finastra said, "Finastra's commitment to ESG is underpinned by deep-rooted collaboration, which makes competitions like these crucial. We are so impressed with the creative ideas and insights from all the projects and are extremely proud of the students who took part. A key takeaway is that ESG investing might look like a crowded space, but there is still room for innovation. Additionally, financial inclusion remains a huge problem: financial apps are still inaccessible for many, but fintech can play a big role in tackling this challenge. It was a pleasure to collaborate with the partners and we extend a huge congratulations to all of the winners." Throughout the past six months, participants received material resources, including access to Finastra's open platform for innovation, FusionFabric.cloud, and weekly training with nearly a hundred coaches from a variety of industries. Winning projects were selected based on their degree of completion, financial viability and their capacity for disruption and innovation.