Rietumu Bank has established its independent prize in the field of fintech at this competition.
Rietumu is the official bank of the international conference “Silicon Valley Comes to the Baltics”, which will be held for the first time in Riga this year – on 6-7 November.
Earlier, starting with 2012, this conference devoted to the latest technological developments was annually held in Vilnius, Lithuania. The first forum already had as many as 1300 participants, and with each coming year the number of forum participants has been growing – last year reaching a figure of 2500.
The main goal of the forum participants is to create a platform where professionally successful speakers may share their experience and knowledge and, figuratively speaking, in this way contribute to the creation of another ‘Silicon Valley’ for the Baltics.
The subject title of the current forum is “Money Goes Where Talent Grows”. Its organisers emphasise that new hi-tech companies are now on the rise not only in the famous Silicon Valley in the USA, but also worldwide, including the Baltic countries, and investors are ready to invest funds in promising ideas and talented teams.
Actually, the conference will be preceded by two other events which are directly related to it. One of them is the political forum “Riga Venture Summit” with the participation of over 100 politicians, experts and public leaders who will discuss issues of strengthening the ‘technological eco-system’ in the Baltics, which contributes to the development of new companies.
On the same day, 6 November, a competition of startups will be held, in cooperation with TechHub Riga Academy – Latvian platform for uniting startups.
The process of selecting ‘the best of the best’ startups will take place at Rietumu – the official bank of the forum. Its 10 leaders will be able to present themselves and participate in the preliminary discussion part of the forum, which will take place on the same day. And the five best startups will be honoured on the big stage on the main day of the conference. After that, the ‘star experts’ in startup development will choose one winner of the competition.
It is anticipated that investors from countries where startups are actively developing will meet all young entrepreneurs – participants of the forum.
“Rietumu – the official bank of this conference – has established its own special prize, and we intend to award it to a participant of the ‘parade’ of startups we will choose ourselves. I can also say that the bank will search for and select its ‘winner’ in the fintech segment, which is experiencing a rapid upsurge at present. We, like many of our colleagues, have a feeling that the financial sector is a few steps away from a profound technological revolution: there are plenty of interesting and innovative solutions and new opportunities, the practical implementation of which is currently restrained by several problems that have not quite been resolved. There is a strong desire to bring the moment of resolution of such issues closer and we hope that Baltic startups will contribute to this process in their own way,” said Member of the Board, Senior Vice-president of Rietumu Bank Eugene Dugaev.
Eleonora Gailisha Mass Media and Public Relations
Phone: +371-67020506
Fax: +371-67020563
E-mail:
egailisha@rietumu.lv
