Pioneering New Zealand financial technology firm, SuiteBox, has won the right to pitch its wares to some of the world’s largest banks and insurers after being named best-in-category at the second annual KPMG Fintech Innovation Challenge last week.
The only Australasian firm to feature in the winner’s circle, ‘virtual office’ provider SuiteBox ,took out first place in the ‘Mobility’ section, one of six categories in the KPMG Challenge (organised in collaboration with Hong Kong-based fintech marketing business, Matchi).
Winners in each category will present their product in London on February 11 to a panel of top global financial institutions, including: Westpac; Caixa Bank (Spain), Bank Hapoalim (Israel), Nationwide (UK), Liberty Group (South Africa), AIB (Ireland), Standard Bank (South Africa) and Rabobank (Netherlands).
In a statement, Richard Mannell, SuiteBox CEO, said the prize was a “ringing endorsement of the opportunity for truly mobile virtual meetings between professionals and their clients across many industries”.
“SuiteBox is excited to be at the forefront of delivering mobile office solutions globally,” Mannell said.
The NZ-originated company, which has expanded to Australia, South Africa and the UK, provides users with any internet-connected device the ability “to meet via video, record meetings and, share, review and sign documents online”.
To date, SuiteBox has focused on the financial services industry including financial planning and insurance advisory firms. Last week, the firm also launched its first media campaign globally in a deal with Investment News NZ.
According to a release from KPMG and Matchi, the Challenge attracted 120 entries from across the world, competing in the six categories.
“All entries were individually scored against set criteria, including: novelty/ innovativeness, ease of implementation, potential impact (revenue, cost or efficiency) and overall impression,” the release says.
And the winners are:
Next Gen Payments
- Winner: AlphaHub (Ireland)
- Runner Up: Paybox (Israel)
Wealth-Tech
- Winner: NestEgg (USA)
- Runner Up: Canopy (Singapore)
Blockchain
- Winner: KYC on the Blockchain (UK)
- Runner Up: OpenChain (Ireland)
Mobile VAS / Mobility
- Winner: SuiteBox (New Zealand)
- Runner Up: Mitek/IDCheck (Netherlands)
Data / Credit Analytics
- Winner: SpotCap (Germany)
- Runner Up: OSMO Data (UK)
CyberSecurity & Biometrics
- Winner: iProov (UK)
- Runner Up: ECG Biometric (UK)