(L-R): Ben Younkman of Village Capital, Nigel Verdon (CEO of Railsbank), Clive Mitchel (COO of Railsbank), Joshua Bower-Saul in white (CEO of Cybertonica), Alan Nagle in blue (Chief Commercial Officer of Cybertonica);

Railsbank, a leading UK-based open-banking and regtech platform, and fellow London-based startup Cybertonica, have won offers of €100,000 venture capital investment from MiddleGame Ventures.

Both companies were ranked “most ready for investment” by a group of their peers on the final day of the FinTech Europe 2018 programme. This is a three-month venture development programme for European startups developing finTech and RegTech compliance solutions.

The programme was led as part of a global collaboration for financial health between PayPal and Village Capital, with local support from MiddleGame Ventures and the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT).

Twelve early-stage entrepreneurs came together in Berlin and Luxembourg from April to June 2018 for more than 100 hours of programming and networking. They spent time developing their businesses, meeting with mentors and investors, and participating in Village Capital’s unique peer-selected investment process, in which entrepreneurs are given decision-making power over where to allocate venture capital within their peer group.

Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the LHoFT Foundation said: “This three four-day workshops investment readiness and coaching program were inspiring. It is great to have achieved so much with 12 incredible fintech companies and we hope this program will be a game-changer for the 12 entrepreneurs. It was also great to work with Village Capital, PayPal and Middlegame Ventures to execute this epic program. Thank you to all the mentors and Luxembourg community who created valuable insights for all the companies.”

Each of the twelve startups is building a technology-based product, or service, that will help financial institutions, regulators, and consumers interact with the economy in the digital age.

Nigel Verdon, CEO of Railsbank added: “When we were first invited to join, we thought that this would be was just another accelerator. But we were so wrong. The programme has an amazing methodology that helps you frame your business and understand the areas where you need to concentrate in order to succeed and scale.We appreciated the phenomenal set of peer entrepreneurs and the collaborative environment in which we were able to review each others’ businesses in a constructive way. Over the three different sessions of the programme, we’ve taken some of the learnings and implemented them in our business.”

Claire Alexandre, Head of EMEA Government Relations, PayPal said: “The first edition of Village Capital’s Fintech Europe 2018 could not have been more exciting for the PayPal teams in Europe! There were two buzzing cities, three workshops, four partners, 12 start-ups and more than 80 mentors. We are thrilled to have joined these amazing men and women to further the digital agenda for financial services and push the frontiers of technology innovation. A warm thanks to Village Capital, MiddleGame Ventures and Luxembourg House of FinTech for their strong partnership and to the entrepreneurs for their contagious ambition.”