Fintech awards

Africa

The first African FinTech Awards and Conference will be held within the Finance Indaba Africa conference and expo in Johannesburg in October 2016. It will gather Africa's leading FinTech entrepreneurs, bankers, investors and advisors.

Australia

The 1st Annual Australian FinTech Awards will be held on 23 June 2016. The awards will be given in thirteen categories. The project, product, research paper, campaign, or activity that is entered must have been created, developed or released in the 18 months before the awards to be a valid entry.

Founded by Glen Frost, the founder of FinTech Summit, and sponsored by Ashurst, the awards celebrate the achievements of the people and businesses comprising the fintech sector. The candidates can enter as many awards as they feel appropriate at no charge.

Canada

The Canadian FinTech Awards were created in 2014 by the Digital Finance Institute, a prominent global think tank for FinTech created in 2013, that has helped build the Canadian FinTech ecosystem. The first Canadian FinTech Awards were held on October 19 2015, in Toronto as part of the Digital Finance Institute's Annual National Conference in Toronto.

There are eight categories of awards created by the Digital Finance Institute including "Investor of the Year"; "FinTech of the Year"; "Financial Institution Innovator of the Year"; "Professional Service Organization of the Year"; "Governance Person of the Year"; "Academic Institution Program"; "Accelerator, Incubator or Entrepreneurial Network"; and "Global Impact".

The 2016 Canadian FinTech Awards are held on November 21, 2016, in Toronto at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel as a Black Tie Gala Awards Dinner Ceremony sponsored by PayPal, CIBC, SAS, Payments Canada and Ryerson University's The DMZ, among others.

In 2016, notable nominations for the Digital Finance Institute's FinTech Awards include Satoshi Nakamoto for "Global Impact" his / her invention of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology and Innotribe and SWIFT for "Global Impact" for their leadership and vision in commissioning the first study and white paper on "FemTechLeaders". Also notable was that for the first time in history, a government agency was nominated for a FinTech Award when the British Columbia Lottery Corporation was nominated for a Canadian FinTech Award for RegTech for its online gambling website, PlayNow.

Canada's FinTech Awards has become the go-to event for the FinTech community in Canada that is well-attended and sponsored by Canada's major banks, software firms, universities and prominent members of the FinTech eco-system.

Europe

The European FinTech Awards is an organization that aims to disrupt traditional financial intuitions by providing a platform for fintech entrepreneurs to collaborate with one another. Like the Dutch and African awards, the European awards are the result of an initiative of Alex van Groningen BV, a Dutch financial publisher.

The awards start with the European FinTech 100, a selection of innovative companies with ground-breaking ideas and technologies. The wide batch is chosen by the vote of more than 55,000 fintech enthusiasts from all over Europe (as of 2016). Then a panel of fintech experts reduces the selection to one hundred companies. The one hundred, in turn, are the pool from which the finalists are chosen. The finalists have the opportunity to pitch during the conference and take home either the main prize, the Best European FinTech Company, or one of the 9 sub-categories.

The first European FinTech Awards & Conference was held in Amsterdam on 14 April 2016. 413 companies from 34 European countries were nominated. 30% of all nominees were from United Kingdom.

Behaviosec was the winner of the award for the Best European FinTech Company 2016. Winners in the 9 sub-categories were: Monese (Challenger Banks), Funding Circle (Alternative Finance), Ebury (Payments), Wikifolio (PFM), Everledger (Blockchain), Kreditech (Financial Inclusion), Knip (InsurTech), Backbase (Innovative Banking Software), and Behaviosec (Risk, Intelligence & Security).

India

India FinTech Awards is an event organized by the India FinTech Forum along with several startup accelerators. It is a prestigious award for fintech firms, and recognizes their efforts to change the way financial services are delivered. The winners are decided by a panel of industry stalwarts. The event focuses on actual working product demonstrations to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.

Italy

The Italian Fintech Awards originated from the Grand Prix for Italian startups, held in 2014. The Grand Prix and the Fintech Awards, both organized by CheBanca!, have been geared towards the best Italian fintech startups. The 2016 edition had a call for submission till 31 March. 12 finalists were chosen among the candidates.

The winner is awarded 25,000 euros, personalized workshops with startup coaches, and a visit to a startup bootcamp in London. In 2016, the co-winners of the ceremony in Milan were Ovalmoney and eXrade.

Luxembourg

The finals of the first Fintech Lion Awards in Luxembourg, launched by KPMG, will be held on 21 June 2016. Among the candidates, 15 start-ups from Luxembourg were chosen to pitch their projects at the semi-finals in May. Ten of them were chosen for the finals, which will be held under the patronage of Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.

The jury will be composed of established entrepreneurs, investors and celebrities. There will be three awards: Fintech Startup of the Year (50,000 euros and a four-month stay at Technoport); Fintech Entrepreneur of the Year (a trip to Silicon Valley and a year at the KPMG Hub for Entrepreneurship); Best Pitch (a year at the KPMG Hub for Entrepreneurship and a media campaign).

Netherlands

The first Dutch Fintech Awards took place at the headquarters of host ABN AMRO in Amsterdam in 2015. A 40-member jury gave awards in seven categories. The awards were attended by some 400 national and international fintech investors, companies, experts and executives.

In 2015, Adyen was the overall winner, receiving the award for a lasting breakthrough in the current payment industry. The winners in particular categories were: AcceptEmail (Payments), Five degrees (Banking IT), Bux (Personal Finance), Bitonic (Bitcoin), Sparkholder (Intelligence & Analytics), Symbid (SME).

Switzerland

The call for submissions for the first Swiss Fintech Award was published in October 2015. Any company founded by a Swiss citizen or headquartered in Switzerland could participate. A jury of 16 experts chose the top ten enterprises that would be trained in boot camps. The second round was a speed dating event with the jury and award sponsors in early February 2016. The three finalists pitched their ideas at the financial and economic forum "Fintech 2016" on 31 March 2016. The winner won a cash prize and a stay at the Accenture Fintech Innovation Lab in London.

United Kingdom

The UK Fintech Awards ceremony was held in London on 13 April 2016. Sponsored by Bobsguide, the awards recognized achievements across the global financial technology industry.

United States

In the United States, there are two major award ceremonies.

The Benzinga Fintech Awards (BZ Awards) take place in New York. Their purpose is to "showcase the companies with the most impressive technology, who are paving the future in financial services and capital markets." There are 18 awards. In 2016, more than 25,000 people voted for their favorites among 223 companies from around the globe.

The Efma Fintech Awards highlight the best in class fintech solutions in several categories, with a panel of experts voting on the best solutions. In 2016, the winners were announced at Efma’s Distribution Summit on 14 April 2016.