Remote identification service Oz Photo Expert becomes the best FinTech start-up in GenerationS

The winners of FinTech-direction GenerationS organized by RVC with the participation of the Bank of Russia are now determined. The best teams shared the prize fund of $1 million and received grants from the Foundation for the Promotion of Innovation. The accelerator participants will continue cooperation with industrial partners of GenerationS — QIWI, Visa and the Moscow stock exchange.

The operator and developer of the acceleration program for the participants was the company RIS Ventures.

The Moscow team Oz Photo Expert under the leadership of Artem Gerasimov took the first place at the FinTech-direction of GenerationS. The developers presented a software package for recognizing fake documents and photos in electronic form and remote identification of customers by face biometrics. This technology enables to determine the picture montage, retouching, image changes in graphic editors and other features of digital fraud. The start-up team received 500 thousand rubles and a grant of 2 million rubles from the Foundation of the Promotion of Innovations under the Start Program. On April 25, Oz Photo Expert will take part in the Finals of GenerationS.

"The modern payment solutions follow not only the development of technology, but are increasingly taking into account changing consumer behaviour. We see our role in this continuous process in Visa Company in offering more and more convenient and safe services to consumers to make non-cash payments. The projects selected within the framework of the acceleration program strive to match the current client experience, which increases their chances of success," noted Mikhail Batuev, Director of New Products and Innovations at Visa in Russia.

"During the Acceleration Program of GenerationS, almost all the teams were able to refine their products and test the first hypotheses. In turn, we as partners could get quick access to new products and checked the interest of our audience without significant costs. QIWI plans to develop cooperation with four teams of GenerationS: In addition to Oz Photo Expert, this is Simple Invest, Panda Money and FINHUB", commented Olga Turzhanskaya, Director of Venture Department at QIWI Group.

The second place and the prize of 350 thousand rubles went to the Cindicator team, which deals with predictive market analytics for individual investors and hedge funds. The developers have already launched a pilot project with the Moscow Stock Exchange. Within three weeks, the trading robot from Cindicator has made deals on the basis of the collective opinion of non-professional traders. As a result, the collective intelligence demonstrated a yield of 47% per annum in foreign currency.

"For the Moscow Stock Exchange, this was the first experience of interaction with the FinTech start-ups as part of accelerations, and we consider it as extremely successful. The exchange team was pleasantly surprised by the high professionalism level of program participants and their progress. We hope for a continuation of fruitful cooperation with all the participants of the program," emphasized Anton Govor, Managing Director for Strategy at the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The third place and 150 thousand rubles fell to the entrepreneurs from the Yango project for further business development. The team created a mobile application that allows to sell and buy bonds from your smartphone. The developers of the housing and communal services electronic settlement service "Apartment accounting" from the Linergo team were awarded a special prize from Microsoft — a $ 120,000 cloud grant. And the founders of the start-up "Fixer of risks" on insurance against currency risks based on exchange technologies became another holder of a grant worth $ two million awarded by the the Innovation Support Fund.

"We hope that the grants under the Start program will serve as a serious impetus for the teams to further refine the projects," said Anton Bobrinev, Head of External Communications Department at Innovation Promotion Foundation.

In total, 353 applications were received for participation in the Finance & Banking Technologies track. Following the selection for the corporate accelerator, 20 strongest teams were chosen: Seven projects were selected by QIWI, another 13 by the Moscow Stock Exchange. 16 entrepreneurs could reach the final of FinTech-directions and presented their technologies to the experts. The partners of the track were BCS Broker and VTB24. The latter, after the end of acceleration, announced its willingness to consider projects to launch a joint pilot project in the segment of small business services.

"FinTech-direction has become one of the most efficient in GenerationS. A number of teams as early as at the stage of the accelerating program started active cooperate with industrial partners, received investments and launched pilot projects. Many participants are developing with an eye on global markets," noted Deputy General Director of RVC and ideologist of GenerationS Gulnara Bikkulova.

RIS Ventures used its own Pilotbed methodology, which allows corporations to launch cooperation with technology entrepreneurs in the shortest possible time and check the project liquidity. During the acceleration program, 11 start-up teams have managed to launch pilot projects jointly with partner companies.

As the Final stage of GenerationS on April 25, the winners of a special nomination for FinTech start-ups from Raiffeisenbank will be announced. The best team will be awarded a financial bonus of RUB 1 million, and all the three finalists will be able to launch pilot projects together with the bank.