Two Bitcoin Based Startups Win Citi Mobile Challenge EMEA

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Citibank along with IBM Cloud Computing and MasterCard Start Path is actively involved in fostering innovation in the fintech arena. Citi Mobile Challenge EMEA is one such program conducted across three different regions in the world namely, Europe, Middle East and Africa. As a part of this program, Citibank provides the selected teams with access to their APIs. These teams can make use of these APIs to build products for the financial sector.

Broadly classified into two sections, this annual event selects entrepreneurs/teams to develop Consumer and Business Solutions. While the Consumer Solution involves development of intuitive and personalized applications for banking customers, the business solutions includes enterprise level fintech tools used by corporate clients.

This year’s event saw the participation of teams/start-ups from 18 countries presenting 77 different fintech products at the demo days across 4 different cities. The Citi Mobile Challenge EMEA demo days were held in Nairobi, Jerusalem, Warsaw and London on April 22, 26, 20 and 30 respectively. Out of the 11 top teams selected as title winners at Citi Mobile Challenge EMEA, 2 of them were based on Bitcoin technology.

GetGems, a Blockchain based social networking application from Israel won the “Most Visionary Social Media Solution” title and the Poland based Bitcoin wallet, Billion walked away with the title of being the “Most Innovative Blockchain Solution. Some of the other start-ups include Avoka Transact, Elma—Mobile Commerce Payment solution, The Kytabu App, Namu Mobile Banking Platform and Superwallet are few other projects that made it to the top.

READ MORE: GetGems Messaging App Gets $400k VC Funding

At the time when a lot of banks and financial institutions are working on finding ways to include Bitcoin and Blockchain technology into their daily operations, The Citi Mobile Challenge EMEA and other similar competitions will help speed up the development and adoption of Bitcoin technology in the traditional banking and financial businesses.