Meet the five startups joining London’s newest corporate fintech lab
Five up-and-coming startups have been chosen by a London investment firm to join its newly created fintech lab.
The new cohort joining Octopus Labs' 12 week programme include companies working on artificial intelligence powered financial news and financial management platforms aimed at investors and financial advisors.
The director of the accelerator run by Octopus Investments, the group behind the venture capital firm backing successful startups such as Swiftkey and Zoopla, noted their potential.
Read more: London's best for fostering fintech as industry eyes new success measures
“We launched the search for our start-ups just a few weeks ago, and have been truly overwhelmed by the number and standard of the applications we received in such a short time," said Aggelos Mouzakitis.
"Whittling the hopefuls down to our final five was no easy task, but I’m thrilled with the cohort that we’ll be welcoming to Octopus over the next few weeks. The quality of their ideas, and the potential they hold, is truly impressive.”
The lab was announced last month with the aim of hot-housing startups that already have a product and will decide whether to invest in them at the end of the three months or whether to "spin-in" the startup, adding it to its in-house fintech product team.
Read more: More staff than ever are working on fintech at the City regulator
The five startups
Cityfalcon
A financial news feed powered by artificial intelligence and the crowd, which brings together tweets, research, traditional news and more, but tailored around each person's specific investment interests to recommend relevant content.
Moola
An investment app designed to make investing easy and low risk for anyone, not just the wealthy.
Squirrel
An app for helping people better manage their money with the help of employers, including billing, budgeting, and saving straight through payroll.
Freetrade
This startup is letting people trade on the stock market commission free and all in a simple app.
Advicefront
The platform is helping independent financial advisers manage their work more efficiently.