The awesome alumni of MKB Fintechlab — FintechBlocks
In the next couple of posts we will showcase the alumni of MKB Fintechlab’s first batch. We worked hard with these teams and we are proud that they chose to launch and accelerate their startups with us. Among the first batch, some already have a partnership with MKB Bank, some won international awards and some advanced into other programs.
Our alumni startup, FintechBlocks went from idea-stage to revenue-stage during the first program, and they are currently in the middle of their reference project with MKB Bank. If you want to follow in their footsteps, apply to our program by 1 December HERE!
Last autumn, when we kicked of the application process for our first acceleration program, we didn’t know what to expect. Banks had just started to wake up, developers had not jumped yet on the opportunities PSD2 will present and you couldn’t see many fintech initiatives running around the streets. The digital transformation of MKB Bank was already in full swing and we wanted to find early stage fintech startups that we can accelerate and partner with.
We started to dig into the startup community and inspire talents to come out with their ideas, 58 projects (I am trying to be careful with the word startup) applied to accelerate their ventures with us. Eventually 6 early-stage teams joined and got funded by MKB Fintechlab in March 2017. The party was on and we wanted to create remarkable stories with them.
One of those stories is the story of FintechBlocks. FintechBlocks was founded by Gyuri and Tamás, two veterans when it comes to fintech. They founded a PFM startup before and attended several industry-related hackathons. Gyuri and Tamás were joined by János, a seasoned operator of businesses who knows how to get a team organized. We liked the team.
FintechBlocks was the idea of an innovation platform for banks that helps them (1) cooperate with fintechs more easily, (2) shorten the development time of internal projects and (3) tick the box of being a PSD2-compliant bank with the APIs. At first, because the vision of FintechBlocks is becoming the ultimate marketplace for bank-fintech partnerships. FintechBlocks’s idea was based on the founders’ personal experience and real market demand. We liked the idea and timing.
What FintechBlocks needed was funding to be able to start the development and sales processes and a platform where they could start the company itself. They could sell the product to their first clients with the help of an embedded partner and the first bank that commits to be their client. This is exactly what we provide. We liked the match.
Since March, the following happened:
- The founders set up the company and got their funding from MKB Fintechlab.
- FintechBlocks developed and delivered the first public API sandbox of Hungary together with MBK Bank by the time of our Demo Day in July.
- FintechBlocks secured a valuable (in $-terms) partnership with MKB Bank and the reference project is ongoing.
- FintechBlocks is inside the room of several bank execs with their product in the middle of their sales.
Check out their VIDEO for more information about them.
What will happen is the question of the future. What we know is that we are happy that we can work with the talented founders of FintechBlocks and that we could contribute to their story.
Click HERE if you interested in following in their footsteps. Apply to our next program by 1 December and get to know us and our alumni during our Selection Camp in the middle of December.
