From left: Jan Tore Sanner, (Minister of Local Government), Kjetil Johan Ølmheim (board member, Finance Innovation), Stig Frode Opsvik (Knowit), Jan Erik Kjerpeseth (Chairman of the board, Finance Innovation), Monica Mæland (Minister of Trade and Industry). Photo: Charlotte Wiig, Innovation Norway
The fintech cluster was awarded Arena status at Aftenpostens' tech conference this week. Finance Innovation's goal is to make finance easy and to export enabling services and technologies to the world. The cluster comprises banks, financing companies, insurance companies, tech companies and educational and research institutions working on the financial services and solutions of tomorrow.
Inspired by NCE Media
The work being done in the fintech cluster coincides with the solutions coming out of the media cluster. Chairman of the Finance Innovation Board, Jan Erik Kjerpeseth, look forward to collaborating with NCE Media:
– The potential for synergies between NCE Media and Finance Innovation is obvious, on several levels. Someone in the media business once said about digitalization that «if media is the starter, finance is the main course». We can learn from the processes in the media industry, we can collaborate on innovation infrastructure and events, we can connect companies and competence in new ways, thus opening up for new and radical solutions, and we can collaborate on common industry challenges. The work that has been carried out in NCE Media is an inspiration to us, and we look forward to having close relations with the media cluster in the coming years, Kjerpeseth says.
The fintech cluster has fostered the first only online bank in Norway, award winning user experience in mobile banking and payments, new technology driven banking start-ups, rapidly growing tech start-ups, new flexible banking platforms and a ground-breaking investment platform aimed for non-professionals.
Collaboration will fuel innovation and new opportunities
Anne Jacobsen, CEO of NCE Media, warmly welcomes Finance Innovation to the cluster family, and also looks forward to joint innovation projects between the Media and Finance clusters.
– For the media cluster, which has its core expertise and competence in VizTech, it is obvious that there are many synergies here. In addition to having strong environments working with visualization technologies, we also have companies that work with transactions, blockchain, security, payment solutions, user perspectives and communications. Much of the technology and solutions currently used in finance are actually developed in the media cluster. A closer cooperation will obviously fuel further innovation and new opportunities, Jacobsen says.
– Furthermore, I find that the new cluster represents a forward-leaning and highly innovative environment. We have lots to learn here. To us, this does not only represent new possibilities for innovation, but also opportunities for learning and gaining new competence and expertise in new areas, Jacobsen says.