by Gugu Lourie
Matchi, a financial innovation matchmaking firm, has been signing up banks on its online “matchmaking” service to connect with Fintech start-ups providing cheaper, easier financial technology services to consumers.
The company was started just over three years ago with CEO David Milligan (formerly of FNB) at the helm.
Matchi was started as a direct result of a problem encountered by its founder: how hard it is for financial technology firms and financial institutions to find each other in a meaningful way.
In the past three years, the Johannesburg and Hong Kong-based financial innovation matchmaking firm has partnered with more than 100 financial institutions and boast a network of more than 2500 categorised FinTech firms from around the world.
Over this time, Matchi has provided services to the likes of American Express, Citi, CaixaBank, Liberty Life, Lloyds Banking Group, Mahindra Finance, Mauritius Commercial Bank, RBS, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered, TSB and UBS, etc.
FinTech is revolutionizing the financial services landscape and it has created a new marketplace for innovation.
Matchi is at the forefront of identifying breakthrough FinTech technology.
The firm also has forged a global alliance with professional services firm KPMG, helping selected clients with their FinTech and innovation agendas.
The alliance with KPMG enables firms to use its Matchi platform and it’s wider, global FinTech communities in advising clients on the optimal innovations to help deliver on their strategic initiatives.
The collaboration with Matchi enables KPMG to expand its FinTech global capabilities.
Milligan told TechFinancials that it has been an incredible journey over the past three years as FinTech growth has exploded around the world.
“Banks and now insurance companies are all actively seeking to engage with the great innovation and technology being developed by smaller firms. Matchi helps these two very different kinds of organisations to find each other and work together to their mutual benefit.”
The core team of Matchi is based in Johannesburg with other employees in strategic FinTech regions around the world. The team travels regularly to advocate a faster spread of financial innovation and operations.
Led by executive with extensive expertise, Matchi is definitely making inroads within the international financial technology industry and is appealing to all local and international participants.
Financial institutions are finding various ways to collaborate with FinTech firms but with over $20 billion invested in 12000+ intech startups, it’s not easy to keep up.
Matchi’s Fintech Matchmaking services and portal are a bridge to vetted, relevant and implementable fintech solutions from a global pool.
The Matchi Fintech Portal is a fully curated and searchable online showcase of implementable FinTech solutions that are visible to key decision makers.
Financial institutions can benefit from a multitude of ways to engage with Matchi, the most popular of which are the innovative Innovation Challenges and Market Scans. These provide financial institutions with a selection of FinTech firms, each with a demoable product and relevant to your strategic objectives in 10 weeks or less.
“Matchi connected us with the biggest banks in Australia and South Africa, leading to discussions that would not have happened without us being Matchi members. They are key to our international growth,” said Randal Cox, founder and CTO of Rippleshot.
