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Mobile Payment Startup, Equity Financing Innovator Win SWIFT's Innotribe New York Regional Awards
Innotribe, the SWIFT-sponsored collaborative financial technology innovation group, named a mobile payments startup and an equity financing innovator as the winners of its regional Innotribe Startup Challenge in New York.
P2P Cash Technology, a provider that brings secure, low-cost banking functions to the unbanked consumer via a mobile phone and a proprietary cash management system, won the Top Startup award.
Gust won the "Top Innovator" award with innovation in the sourcing and managing seed and early-stage equity investments. Gust's infrastructure allows qualified entrepreneurs to arrange equity financing from accredited investors.
"The New York Innotribe Startup Challenge was an unparalleled opportunity to see the future in financial services," said Kosta Peric, head of Innovation at SWIFT and head of Innotribe, said in a statement. "The financial institutions, investors and press who were present got a rich portfolio of proposals, going from social lending to P2P payments to secure authentication technologies. We look forward to welcoming the Americas Showcase winners at the Innotribe Startup Challenge finals at Sibos."
As "Top Startup" and "Top Innovator" for the Americas Showcase, P2P Cash Technology and Gust will now advance to the Innotribe Startup Challenge finals to be held at Sibos -- SWIFT's annual conference -- in Osaka in October of 2012.
The New York Startup Challenge was the first of three regional challenges to be held in 2012 and was sponsored by Sberbank, Invest Northern Ireland, Cisco and Guidewire Group. The next Startup Challenge competition will take place in Singapore in April, followed by Belfast in June. Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio