Startup accelerator Startup Wise Guys revealed 20 startups selected fo its Fintech & SaaS accelerator programs in Riga, Latvia. The teams will be coming from US, Sweden, and Singapore. Ukrainians and Estonians leading the crowd with 5 and 3 teams from each country.
With 20 startups from 12 different countries Startup Wise Guys (SWG) start their two parallel accelerator programs in Riga, Latvia – Wise Guys Fintech program in collaboration with Swedbank and general B2B SaaS program.
SWG received over 250 applications. Notably, startups from Ukraine were among the most active in the application process and it also shows in results – 5 startups from Ukraine have been admitted to the accelerator. Estonian and Latvian startups follow in their footsteps – with correspondingly 3 and 2 startups from each country. 2 Russian startups have also been selected and it is the first time in SWG history, along with first-timers from Sweden, Czech Republic and Singapore.
B2B / SaaS program (Batch 10):
OROCON (Latvia) – a solution for construction and maintenance companies to manage, control and optimize all work processes easily under your fingertips;
BLOKNOTAPP (Ukraine) – a business management software for salons and clinics;
LOVAT (Russia) – a smart VAT solution with full-range of VAT-compliance;
SIMPORTER (US) – a real-time analytics platform for retail product valuation;
XENN.IO (Turkey) – unified data engine to track, segment, target, and analyze every journey in a single platform;
HIVE (Russia) – virtual operator for ground GNSS reference station networks;
POMODONEAPP (Lithuania) – productivity timer for your task manager;
TSEKK (Estonia) – enables companies, both small and large, to streamline their expense reporting processes;
PIBOX (Ukraine) – mix review and remote collaboration for music production;
SMARTVENT (Estonia) – machine-learning indoor climate automation to create healthy and energy-efficient offices.
Wise Guys Fintech program hosted by Swedbank:
CAFEPAY (Latvia) – smart employee B2B payments. Allows companies to pay for employees food, representative costs etc in a smart way;
CURRENCII (Armenia) – first P2P currency exchange platform in CIS;
FULLY VERIFIED (Hong Kong) – service that allows to remove identity fraud and help with quick and secure customer onboarding;
JETBEEP (Ukraine) – a platform that enables a cutting edge user experience for consumer interaction via smartphones and wearables for payments, loyalty, and marketing that makes a smartphone with an app substitute all payment and loyalty cards, coupons, discounts with just one tap or over the air;
PIGGYMIND (Singapore) – a spare-change savings service for purchasing insurance with ease;
PRIMA PLATBA (Czech Republic) – online payment platform with API for easy integration into e-commerce businesses;
SUREBERRY (Ukraine) – online insurance service API, that allows companies to provide online insurance for users without leaving their site;
PAYQIN (Sweden) – payments online in emerging markets;
COINYPAY (Ukraine) – chatbot in Facebook Messenger for Payment Service Providers and banks that allows buyers to check out online products in one click;
PayTipTop (Estonia) – Simple autonomous NFC payment solution for predefined prices.
Startups have moved to Riga and are starting a 3-month journey at the accelerator to grow their business to the new heights. Along with mentoring from more than 100 international mentors, startups also receive 20,000 Eur investment to further develop their business.
“The thriving digital ecosystems in the countries where Startup Wise Guys operate in combined with the expertise of the mentors at the accelerator program made it an easy choice for us. Our offering at PiggyMind is scalable and while we look to be in Asia and other parts of the world in the near future, the Baltic region would certainly be a great start to refine our offering and to enhance the value proposition,” Siddharth Wadehra, from PiggyMind (Singapore).
“As an early stage SaaS company in the US we could’ve turned to accelerators closer to home, but were intrigued with Startup Wise Guys due to their impressive record with mentoring companies to fine-tune the product/market fit. Given that our market is global, the Riga accelerator makes perfect sense – particularly since our programmers are mostly from Eastern Europe,” Tim Hall, Simporter, Inc (US).
“Latvia is gonna become a major hub for FinTech, we are here because want to be a part of it,” Vahagn Grigoryan, Currencii (Armenia).
Which of the teams would you support? Let us know in the comments!
