Fintech Germany Award 2023 publishes shortlist!
The 24-member, top-class jury kept their heads spinning for weeks and decided at a jury meeting which startups and scaleups would make the shortlist of all candidates. By way of comparison: the longlist published in the summer, on the other hand, includes all the participants in the Fintech Germany Award who have either applied and are "in scope" from the jury's point of view (i.e. meet the criteria for fintech/insurtech/regtech/AI etc.) or have been nominated by jury members. Incidentally, it is also advisable for the latter to fill out the application form so that the jury has up-to-date information from the first source.
The shortlist in 2023 includes 39 candidates for the total of 5 announced categories and the 3 special awards.
Jury jointly determines award winners
The jury jointly determines the winners. A scoring model is used as the basis for the decision. The jury has a free hand in determining the winners. For example, it could award additional special prizes, even if these were not announced in advance, or decide not to award a category or to combine two categories.
The shortlist of 39 candidates is not divided into the individual categories in advance, i.e. the candidates do not know which category they are in until the winners are announced on the awards evening. In addition, there are special awards in which a candidate could also win.
Broad field of participants, also in the international price category
The 39 companies on the shortlist naturally come from a wide variety of growth phases, and not only from all over Germany, but also from different countries: Since 2017, the Fintech Germany Awards have also honored the most promising international startup in Germany. This is intended to raise awareness of and promote innovation imported to Germany in particular. The German market for financial services is the largest within the EU and for this reason alone is attractive for many international startups that can enrich the local scene. The jury also has leeway in deciding the winner of this category. What is clear is that there should be a strong connection between the award winners and the German market. Whether that is an office in Germany or a majority shareholder from Germany or a German founding team is left up to the jury. As in the runtime categories, second and third places are also awarded in the international award. The first winner of the international award was the Dutch company Quantoz, which offers blockchain-based payment services and has a branch in the greater Frankfurt area.
The special prizes of the FTGA 2023
This year, the special prizes will be awarded in the following categories: Insurtech, Artificial Intelligence and Proptech. The special prizes have so far been regularly awarded by the jury on a sector-oriented basis. The aim is to promote early-stage sectors in which growth companies are usually only present at the idea or seed stage because they are very young sectors. From the jury's point of view, they should receive more attention at an early stage because the jury considers them to be promising, for example. For example, a special prize was already awarded for blockchain in 2017. The winner at that time was Bitbond from Berlin.
While the Insurtech Special Prize has been awarded annually since the FTGA was introduced in 2016 because the insurance sector is elementary to Germany, 2023 will be the second time a Special Prize for Artificial Intelligence has been awarded. This was last the case in 2020 when Hawk AI won. In addition, a special prize for proptech will be awarded for the second time this year.
The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, which will take place in December. The award language is English.
The FTGA aims to support and promote the fintech industry in Germany. The award was initiated in 2016 by Techfluence UK, WM Group and Frankfurt Main Finance e.V. and has been presented annually since then.The award is sponsor-funded and has been supported by addresses such as Aareal Bank, Bankhaus Metzler or Linklaters for many years.
On October 19, 2023, the shortlist with the candidates' logos was published on www.fintechgermanyaward.de , as well as in the Financial Times.