The Talent Route, LHoFT;

After the successful launch of the Talent Route Network in July 2018, in Valencia Spain, the main European FinTech Hubs have reunited again in Paris, on 28 January 2019, prior to the Paris Fintech Forum.

Welcomed by La Place, the French FinTech meeting point at Palais Brongniart, the Talent Route consortium gathered around the table included the FinTech accelerator Innsomnia from Spain, LHoFT from Luxembourg, Fintech District from Italie, BlackFin Tech from France, Fintech Scotland, Holland Fintech, Copenhagen Fintech, B-Hive from Belgium and Emprende UP from Perú, which is supporting the network in Latin American.

Stronger Together

Alex Panican, Head of Partnership at the LHoFT, explained “The Talent Route initiative shows clearly that working together makes everyone’s ecosystem stronger and more relevant for partners.” Indeed, the network has been recently joined by two prominent Fintech hubs in Europe, Holland Fintech and Fintech Copenhagen, who will bring a great added value for the whole fintech community in Europe.

Simon Schou, Chief Innovation officer of Fintech Copenhagen added “We are very pleased now to be part of The Talent Route network which includes some of the very best fintech hubs in Europe. Working together and creating stronger fintech-bridges across the different fintech-ecosystem is essential for the fintech development in Europe.”

Setting common goals to increase European Competitiveness in Fintech

As Fran Estevan, CEO of Innsomnia, stated last year in Valencia: " We are pioneering the launch of the world's first network of independent accelerators to connect global talent".  With the constant objective of promoting the internationalization of fintech projects by creating bridges, the Innovation Hubs and Incubators exchanged on their key milestones and objectives for the year 2019 around 3 core topics:

1. Set up of joined International Fintech Events in 2019

2. Exchange of best practices and opportunities between the hubs for the benefit of the ecosystems, including cross countries delegations. 

3. Publication of a joined White Paper on the EU Fintech Strategy and best framework conditions to increase competitiveness for European fintech companies.

Alessandro Longoni, Head of Fintech District added "The Fintech district joined the Talent Route in June 2018. After 7 months of collaboration, the pool of talent and the Fintech hubs involved are growing, we are happy to have joined this international network because the collaboration with the other members of the Talent Route will create a more inclusive financial future in Europe. We look forward to bringing our business partners to discover Fintech companies across Europe.”

Raf De Kimpe, Business Development, Pipeline & Partner Management, B-Hive said "Being part of the Talent Route furthers one of the key missions of B-Hive, which is to unite and collaborate with complementary initiatives and in that way avoid further fragmentation within the global ecosystem. We are convinced that by joining forces with the other hubs in the Talent Route, we can collaborate and exchange knowledge and information and in that way offer a great added value to the start-ups and scale-ups that are members of these hubs, including our own."

Mickael Paris, Marketing Director at FinTech Scotland said “At Fintech Scotland our approach has always been a collaborative one and we don't see ourselves competing with other hubs. We all have something different to offer and by working together we can drive more innovation and take to market opportunities for the fintech firms we support. The Talent Route initiative is fantastic and I came back from Paris with many new connections and actions. Amongst other things we agreed to welcome the Innsomnia team in Scotland to connect fintech firms here with some of the great work they do in Spain and South America through the Red Link Programme.”

After this successful reunion in Paris, the Talent Route Network will continue to grow, welcoming new innovation hubs and making sure that all the actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystems are able to access new markets and foreign talents. The next meeting of the Talent Route Network is planned in Spain in July 2019.