F10 – Start-up evaluation: The online interview marathon

Christoph Schärer Tax and Legal Innovation, Transformation & Disruption Leader, PwC Switzerland 17 Oct 2018

 

As one batch ends, the next one starts! Only four weeks ago, F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator celebrated the successful graduation of eleven start-ups from Batch III of its established six-month “Prototype to Product (P2P)” programme. In the meantime, the first two steps of the new evaluation process for Batch IV are already history too.

 

After a marathon of 61 online interviews, we are well on our way to the speed dating event on 25 October 2018, where we will meet the top 26 start-ups face to face.

When the application period for the upcoming Batch IV closed on 9 September 2018, a total of 247 applications from 53 countries had been submitted to F10. Out of these 247 start-ups, F10 selected the 61 most promising solutions for phase two of the evaluation process – the online interviews.

Over five intensive but exciting days, our PwC Switzerland representatives, together with the other F10 Platinum Members (Six, Julius Baer, ZKB, Raiffeisen, Generali and Baloise), evaluated one start-up after another in collaboration with the F10 coaches.

Each start-up had a 30-minute slot (10-minute pitch, then answering questions from the jury and asking questions about the programme themselves) to convince the jury to select their idea and their team for the upcoming P2P programme.

At the end of day five, the corporate partners finally agreed to qualify 26 start-ups, representing the following topics during the next stage of the process – the speed dating event on 25 October 2018 in Zurich:

While eight of the selected candidates are from Switzerland and will only have a short trip to Zurich at the end of October, others will have to travel quite a bit farther.

Join us and meet the future of finance

If you are interested in meeting the start-ups during the speed dating event to evaluate potential ideas for your business – please do not hesitate to contact us.  

Key dates Batch IV:
 

  • 25-26 Oct 18, Speed dating (Top 26) & selection of final participants (Top 15)
  • 03-14 Dec 18, Masterclass 1
  • 14-18 Jan 19, Masterclass 2
  • 18-22 Feb 19, Masterclass 3
  • 08-11 Apr 19, Masterclass 4
  • 13-16 May 19, Masterclass 5
  • 16 May 19, Demo day

The story of F10 and PwC Switzerland

Based in Zurich, the F10 accelerator programme was established by SIX Group in 2015 to promote Switzerland's FinTech eco-system, strengthen the innovative capacity of the Swiss finance and insurance sectors, and forge global links. It has been designed for financial firms that want to reach the next level of innovation, providing access to the most promising international FinTech start-ups, radically new technologies and business models. In September 2016, PwC Switzerland and Bank Julius Bär became joint corporate founding members of the association, with the overarching objective of providing a lasting contribution to the development of a state-of-the-art, future-fit Swiss financial sector. The active involvement in the F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator is one of PwC Switzerland’s core initiatives to attract innovative and exciting new ideas to Zurich and the Swiss financial services industry.

Christoph Schärer

Tax and Legal Innovation, Transformation & Disruption Leader, PwC Switzerland

+41 58 792 42 82

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