Earlier this month the conference Fintech Ukraine 2015 played host to a presentation from the public initiative FinTech Cluster, created within the Ukrainian Venture Hub.
The goal of the project is to unite finance startups, banks, and investment funds in the collective development of the Ukrainian fintech market and to lobby for its interests. The creators of the Cluster are Yuriy Chaika, Sergey Skabelkin, Viktor Ignatyuk, Mikhail Miroshnichenko, and Taras Volobuyev.
According to its founders, the primary tasks of the FinTech Cluster include:
- The consolidation of the efforts of all participants in the Ukrainian IT market, the financial sphere, and business representatives with the goal of developing and increasing the quality of financial services through the introduction of innovations and new technologies;
- Lobbying for the interests of the market participants in the legislative and executive bodies of Ukraine, as well as attracting investors to the fintech industry;
- The education and popularization of financial services among the general public. The accumulation and exchange of knowledge and experience. Attracting young specialists to the industry.
Banks, insurance companies, providers of payment services, mobile operators, logistics companies, governmental agencies, public organizations, universities, venture capital funds, business angels, and mentors have all been invited to partner with the Cluster.
According to the organizers of the project, startups may freely join the Cluster, with the only requirement being that they are “financial” or “near-financial” in nature.
Yuriy Chaika says that the Cluster will show these startups to banks, so that they might engage in mutually-beneficial cooperation. “We will show banks which directions there currently are in the world, as well as which projects in the Cluster they may obtain. Banks currently do not know which Ukrainian fintech projects exist and what they offer.”
