Fintech Awards presented in Stuttgart

Not in Frankfurt this year, but in Stuttgart: The Fintech Germany Awards have winners in eight categories. For the first time, a start-up in the field of sustainable finance also received an award.

At half past six on Wednesday, the time had come: for the sixth time, a jury presented the Fintech Germany Awards (FTGA) to eight start-ups from the financial scene. This year, the event was not held in Frankfurt as usual, but in Stuttgart, hosted by the Stuttgart financial centre. The secret winner of the awards is blockchain technology.

The first five categories are based on the stages of the companies: Cash on Ledger won in the "Seed Stage" category. The fintech ensures that companies can handle payment transactions fully automatically as a machine-to-machine payment process. The winner of the "Early Stage" category is the software company Cashlink. The Frankfurt-based company is taking part in FTGA for the second time; last year it won in the "Blockchain" category. The fintech enables access to the capital market through tokenization. Nuri, formerly known as Bitwala, offers an app for savings plans and trading cryptocurrencies. This year, the fintech won in the Late Stage category. The next winner is a start-up that became a unicorn only this year: Mambu cleared in the "Growth Stage" category. The Berlin-based company targets fintechs and banks with its banking software. The fifth category with the title "Best Foreign Entrant to Germany" was won by the Swiss company FQX. The fintech enables B2B trade financing via blockchain.

Start-ups were also able to win in three special categories: The company Clark with its app, in which customers can bundle their insurances, won in the category "Insurtech".

The blockchain start-up Tangany won the special category "Investment Technology". The Munich-based company is also taking part in FTGA for the second time; last year, it won in the "Seed Stage" category. The fintech offers a wallet solution for the encryption of digital access.

For the first time, there was also the special category "Sustainable Finance", in which Remagine was convincing. The Berlin-based company provides loans exclusively to sustainable companies. Remagine already raised 20 million euros in its seed financing round in January.

At FTGA, a shortlist of 44 fintechs emerged from 180 applications by April 2021, from which the 24-member jury selected the eight winners. The event on 29 September was moderated by Bianca Lopes, CEO of the Talle media group, and entrepreneur Nektarios Liolios.

In the future, the FTGA awards, organised by Frankfurt Main Finance, Techfluence UK and WM Group, will keep changing venues and not just stay in the Hessian capital.