The FinTech Connect Live advisory board includes some of the top minds and influencers in the sector. In the run up to this year’s FinTech Connect Live expo, we spoke with some of them to find out their views on which start ups were making impressive strides in 2016. Below we ask one question and get ten interesting responses.

Which start up caught your eye in particular over the course of the last year?

Edwina Johnson, Startupbootcamp Fintech:  All 9 from our 2016 cohort :). I also really like http://www.paykey.me/ from the Accenture FinTech Lab.

Daniel Lowther, CCgroup: Ethereum continues to impress. Its’ technology is unparalleled, they have serious market traction – which is impressive for any blockchain company at the moment – and they’re helping to educate the wider industry, rather than over-hype as tends to be the trend these days.

Sophie Guibaud, Fidor Bank: Insurtech start up, Brolly.

Richard Peers, Microsoft: Pockit, the prepaid card provider.

Cedric Teissier, Echotraffic: Affirm, the point of sale consumer loans provider.

Roy Vella, Vella Ventures: iPagoo is quite interesting… so much so that I’ve joined their board.

Patrick Bucquet, Chappuis Halder: Very difficult to pick only one, so I would say 1. SatoshiPay because it is probably one concrete and useful application of blockchain with a business plan to make money on one hand and a pain point identified and solved on the other hand: content management, quality of content, with micro-payment linked to the real value of content. 2. Uvamo in insurance, because it is one of the very first marketplaces applied to insurance, with a model very close to LendingClub, but for insurance.

James Ashe-Taylor, Constantine Cannon: Loot Financial Services (mobile bank for millennials). I want my children to sign up for this.

Christoph Rieche, iwoca: Deliveroo, the food ordering and delivery company.

Travers Clarke-Walker:  Behaviosec  – the authentication and verification company.

Stephane Eyraud, Chappuis Halder: There are 5 that we’ve been most impressed with – 1. Kreditech: uses big data algorithms and automated processes to score everyone worldwide, included the 4bn unbanked that do not have a credit score. 2. Everledger: permanent ledger for diamond certification & related transaction history. 3. Loot: aims to bring smarter banking to the consumer, with a focus on students, by combining money management tools with a bank account. 4. Tradle: looks to simplify and secure KYC requirements using blockchain technology similar to the public ledger of bitcoin transactions. 5. Mondo: the digital challenger bank.

In the next edition we find out which entrepreneur has left the greatest lasting impression on our advisory board members.

*The views expressed in this article, are those of the individual respondents and not those of the companies for which they work. 

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