Wellstreet and AWS Launch New Fintech Program in Stockholm

While Silicon Valley is often credited as the hub for high-tech innovation and development, Europe is where we are seeing new centers of innovation emerging. Sweden, in particular, has positioned itself as a center for excellence for financial technology (fintech) startups, and over the past few years, we’ve seen some of the most successful startups with valuations in excess of a billion dollars, such as Bambora, Klarna, and iZettle materialize from this community.

To continue this successful trend, and help more Swedish and Nordic fintech startups build and grow their businesses, Wellstreet, the tech innovation ecosystem, and investment group announced it was launching the Wellstreet Fintech Loft in collaboration with AWS. Wellstreet Fintech Loft is a new investment program that targets entrepreneurs and early-stage startups within financial technology (fintech), regulatory technology (regtech), insurance technology (insurtech) as well as businesses using blockchain and AI. The announcement was made to the startup community at the AWS Pop-up Loft in Stockholm. The new program will provide startups with hands-on guidance and mentorship, monetary investments, and access to the latest cloud technologies and expertise from AWS.

The Wellstreet Fintech Loft will open its doors to the first cohort starting January 13th, 2020, at The Factory—a 14,300 square meter glass building in Sollentuna. Strategically situated between the city of Stockholm and Arlanda airport, it is also the largest tech and innovation hub in the Nordics.

Startups joining the new program will have access to seed funding opportunities, mentorship from Wellstreet and selected venture partners as well as industry knowledge and structure capital from a banking partner and guidance from selected niche players, financial executives, and other experts in the industry. AWS experts will be based in the Wellstreet Fintech Loft and will provide technical guidance and support to the startups helping them build their business in the cloud by leveraging the latest secure cloud technologies such as blockchain, data analytics services, machine learning, and many more. Startups will also benefit from AWS Activate, which provides access to AWS credits, training, and support.

The Fintech Loft will feature one-on-one sessions and tailored workshops, seminars, and events on everything related to building a successful business from employment and other cultural topics, to managing changing regulation, compliance, and dealing with data security. The first program will run over six months, and the selected startups will be based in The Factory at no cost.

The application process is now open, and budding entrepreneurs and early-stage fintech startups interested in joining Wellstreet Fintech Loft can submit their application at fintechloft.wellstreet.se.