Aktia, PostNord Strålfors, Veritas, Fintech Farm and Enfuce team up in an open innovation program to build new sustainable services

Unlike many similar programs, Future Impact Builder’s aim is not to announce a winner in a fancy ceremony, but to get new innovations really into production.

The companies behind the initiative, Fintech Farm and Enfuce, are both experienced with fintech development and innovation programs. Too often these types of programs end up being promotion campaigns rather than creating feasible business cases and products. This time things are done differently. There will be no awards, only hard work with the goal to get new solutions out into the open. The financial technology service provider Enfuce has a crucial role here, facilitating collaboration and tackling the problems in technology and compliance matters, which frequently are the deal breakers for collaborating.

“After organizing and co-organizing several open innovation and partnership programs, we noticed that they rarely result in real business. Usually, this is because the partnering companies do not have the mindset or tools to take it further. It is just a PR or company culture exercise after all. That’s why we created this program with Enfuce. With their expertise, and with the focus on problem solving, rather than pitching, we can bring sustainable innovations into reality,” explains Janne Salminen from Fintech Farm.

We have participated in various innovation and partnership programs, and also won, but the outcome has not been what we have hoped for. That will change now. Collaboration can be difficult, but after working in the industry for decades, both in banks and as a service provider, we have identified the most common obstacles and developed solutions for them.

Monika Liikamaa, CEO and Co-Founder at Enfuce

The partners: Aktia, PostNord Strålfors and Veritas work in different areas in finance, but they have identified common interests, and are all driven by the same values and central idea: Technological innovation will be a key in building a more sustainable world. Some of the partners are also bringing their APIs and data to the table, for the developers to work with.

“We have already started several fintech partnerships and for the first time like to utilize  the power of open innovation. We are participating in the programme especially to get new insights and to improve our already strong wealth management business as well as highlight its role when it comes to environmental and social impact. Besides working with tech companies, we are happy to strengthen our collaboration with Strålfors, Veritas and the fintech ecosystem,” says Kim Alen from Aktia.

“Technology is also in the scope of pension insurers. We want to build new services to give entrepreneurs and small businesses clarity and support in managing their social security and financials. We have also gathered extensive sets of data related to work disability, and want to challenge the data engineers and machine learning experts, to see how that could be utilized. The social impact of disability prevention is massive,” tells Mika Paananen, the Chief Customer Officer of Veritas.

“We are constantly striving to reduce our environmental footprint. Doing sustainable business brings benefits not only to us but also to our customers. Now we have an interesting opportunity to join forces with partners to make an impact in our future. I look forward to how our technology and solutions can benefit from this program”, says Sami Niininen, Head of Business Development from PostNord Strålfors Oy.

The program is mainly targeted at Northern European tech companies, fintechs, and other innovators. It consists of 4 stages:

• The searching and matchmaking period, that lasts until mid-March
• Two-month iteration period to develop and validate the solutions together with the program partners
• Selections and negotiations to agree on how to proceed with the solutions
• Implementation, if suitable solutions are found

Read more and apply to the program.

About:

Aktia is a Finnish asset manager, bank and life insurer that has been creating wealth and wellbeing from one generation to the next for 200 years. Aktia serves customers in digital channels everywhere and face-to-face in offices in the Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Vaasa and Oulu regions. Their award-winning asset management business sells investment funds internationally. Aktia employs approximately 750 people around Finland. Aktia’s assets under management (AuM) on 31 December 2019 amounted to EUR 9.9 billion, and the balance sheet total was EUR 9.7 billion. Aktia’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd (AKTIA).
www.aktia.com

PostNord Strålfors develops and provides communication solutions that give companies with many customers and suppliers completely new opportunities to create stronger and more personal customer relationships. With our digital platform, we deliver seamless communication, regardless of which channels the recipient requires. PostNord Strålfors is part of the PostNord Group – a leading provider of communication and logistics services in the Nordic region. PostNord Strålfors has operations in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, where our 700 employees generated sales of SEK 2 billion (2020).
www.stralfors.com

Veritas is a pension insurer for entrepreneurs, with a human touch. Veritas’ vision is to offer personalized service geared toward entrepreneurs. We take care of the pension cover of over 110 000 people and pay out more than EUR 0.5 billion in pensions annually. Veritas invests pension assets profitably and securely.
www.veritas.fi/en

Fintech Farm is a financial technology hub and a digital finance service company connecting banks and fintech companies. Fintech Farm provides innovation, consulting, acceleration, matchmaking, and training services for the financial industry. Fintech Farm Ltd. is privately held and has built a vibrant community of 100 financial industry organizations within the last 4 years.
www.helsinkifintech.fi

Enfuce offers payment, open banking and sustainability services to banks, fintechs, financial operators, and merchants. By combining industry expertise, innovative technology, and compliance, they are delivering long-term and scalable solutions quickly and securely. Established in 2016, Enfuce currently employs 70 driven professionals in the Nordics and has close to 10 million end users on their platform.
www.enfuce.com