In the grand finale of the “Tech the Bank” competition, organized in partnership with Visa, Banca Intesa rewarded the most innovative ideas and digital solutions.
Out of seven finalists, three winning teams were selected based on the criteria of investment profitability, applicability and prospects for development. The winning teams are Humanitarko, Share Pay and the Cropt team. In accordance with its business plan, the Bank will provide support for the development of their ideas into a specific product or app function, and each of them will also be awarded with EUR 10,000, as well as a trip to the Intesa Sanpaolo Group Innovation Hub in Turin.
The competition was open for individuals, teams, companies as well as start-ups, and over 260 teams applied which developed creative, digital solutions on topics Bank as a service, Super App and Smart Data. Within these topics, they proposed new, fresh solutions for using the bank as a payment and loan platform in the non-banking sector, improved ways to integrate and use non-banking services and features within the bank’s mobile app, as well as options for using data in order to improve the user experience and provide well-rounded services to users.
The jury, comprised of prominent experts from the business and academic worlds, had the very challenging task of selecting the best finalists out of the 42 ideas submitted, based on a five-minute video in which the participants presented their solutions. Darko Popović, President of the Executive board of Banca Intesa Belgrade, Vladimir Đorđević, General Manager, South East Europe, Visa, Marko Čadež, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, Jelena Drakulić Petrović, General Manager of Ringier Axel Springer, Prof. dr Mihailo Jovanović, Head of the Office for Information Technology and e-Government of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and Prof. dr Miroslav Marić, tenured professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and President of the Math Association of Serbia, who made up the jury, had the opportunity to watch the presentations submitted by the finalists, and reach an agreement in person before making the decision on which three solutions had the best potential to improve digital banking operations via their implementation and development.
The winning solution, Humanitarko, which aims to connect banks and humanitarian organizations, was awarded in the Super App category. According to Dejan Petković, who designed the solution, “Humanitarko platform is an app that brings together all humanitarian needs in one place. It is a place where humanitarian organizations will register their activities and explain the purpose of donations needed, while such organized data will enable users of Banca Intesa digital banking to learn about the needs of humanitarian organizations whenever they log in and make donations with just one click”.
As the answer to the topic of Bank as a Service, the Share pay team proposed a solution for group payment and bill splitting. Students Dušan Višnjić and Filip Branović, as one of the youngest competitors, expressed great pleasure at finding out they were among the winners. “We wanted to focus on the problem of joint payment in situations such as booking rooms for several persons, buying tickers or presents or ordering food. Joint payment would become simple, allowing you to select this payment model and invite friends to take part. Based on input of parameters, everyone would get a calculation of how much money they need to contribute and you would pay with just one click“, Dušan explained.
Cropt, which was awarded in the category of Smart Analytics, designed an AI system for automatic risk assessment of agricultural clients. “The solution that Cropt offered to Banca Intesa today is in fact a product of years-long research at the BioSens Institute that at some point matured enough to leave the institute and the academy and find place in agriculture. Our solution is based on satellite recordings, meteorological data, geographical data and many other data. By using AI, big data analytics we can foresee yields, find out to what extent certain soil can bring yield, and based on that a bank can assess risk and approve or decline loan application“, said Oskar Marko, who co-founded Cropt with Sanja Brdar.
Banca Intesa organized the “Tech the Bank” competition, this year for the first time, with the aim to contribute to the development of the digital community in our country, supporting innovative ideas, and applying solutions which can bring banking operations even closer to the expectations of clients.
