The pillars of BNP Paribas fruitful collaboration with Fintech

Last week, BNP Paribas was the proud platinum partner of the Paris Fintech Forum #PFF, which gathered 2,700 attendees from 75 countries, 280 CEO’s on stage and nearly 150 exhibitors, mainly Fintech. This solid partnership illustrates the strong commitment of BNP Paribas to startups, and especially Fintech.

I believe that collaborating with Fintech, in a spirit of open innovation, is a powerful driver of digital transformation and can stimulate new ways of working. I am firmly convinced that banks that embrace this collaboration will be able to adapt faster, offer better products and services to their clients, and thus improve their customer journey as well as gaining a competitive edge.

At BNP Paribas, we have developed a proven and successful model of collaboration with Fintech based on a set of key pillars: banking, co-creation, acceleration and investment.

First, we offer startups specific banking solutions to help them expand and succeed, and accompany them in their international development. Thanks to our retail banking networks and our strong CIB franchise, these companies can benefit from a comprehensive range of products and services: from day-to-day financial management needs, all the way through to corporate finance arrangements, provided by Group subsidiaries specializing in IPOs and equity capital deals. In France, we have developed a network of specialized business centers called WAI dedicated to innovative entrepreneurs and startups. One center in Paris is devoted exclusively to fintech, helping entrepreneurs get their companies up and running as well as offering banking services, financing, leasing, factoring and advice for fintech seeking to expand to other countries.

We also collaborate with Fintech to co-create new solutions for clients, improve existing services, or make our Group more efficient. For example, our RISK function has created a RISK Innovation Office to strategize and facilitate innovation by connecting internal and external ecosystems. By working hand in hand with several startups involved in this Office and with the different businesses of BNP Paribas, we are bringing creativity within our organization and improving our internal processes, systems, and tools. When it comes to an ambitious cooperation with fintech, we can also name our partnership with Gambit, a well-established Belgian fintech. Gambit and BNP Paribas Asset Management built a new value proposition, through a robo-advisor which offers a new and digitized journey for our clients.

Besides, we nurture and encourage Fintech growth through incubators and labs. To do so, we have developed several partnerships with well-known accelerators such as Plug and Play, the world’s largest startups incubator, based in San Francisco. BNP Paribas Plug and Play hosted this week, at Station F, the selection day for Batch#5 which looked very promising. In 18 months, we accelerated 26 startups, which developed 29 POCs in the various Businesses of the Group, and 10 are currently in production within our Businesses. One of those numerous success stories is with DreamQuark, a fintech specialized in artificial intelligence softwares. One of those is now used by BNP Paribas Wealth Management to help our Relationship Managers offer their clients the most suitable products and services. In South Africa, our RCS entity sponsors the Startupbootcamp acceleration program. This has enabled us to source startups in fields as diverse as blockchain, payment solutions, asset management, insurtech, alternative financing … Within 2 years, 8 african startups have become partners, developing POC in various BNP Paribas businesses.

 Last but not least, we also invest in startups. We strongly believe that this can contribute to creating further value for them and, as a result, improve the overall financial industry experience, in the best interest of customer. This can be done directly, via a full acquisition or majority/minority stake, or indirectly via a third-party investment, typically a private-equity vehicle or venture-capital fund. As an example, we sponsor Opera Tech Ventures, a VC fund whose mission is to back startups and entrepreneurs who transform and disrupt the financial industry. By generating fruitful interactions with BNP Paribas, the objective is to help startups create even more value in an open innovation philosophy.

I know that this model of collaboration, based on a win-win philosophy, will keep growing in the years to come. It will undoubtedly continue to bring value for the Fintech, our Group and the banking sector at large.