Big changes have taken place in the financial sector in recent months. BNP Paribas, one of the largest banks in the world, plans to connect their staffers and business lines with promising startups. This seems to be another validation of how collaboration between startups and financial institutions is direly needed. Using an online portal to do so is kind of interesting, to say the least.

BNP Paribas Strengthens Partnership With Fintech Startups

Under the OpenUp umbrella, BNP Paribas wants to bridge the gap with promising fintech startups. Collaboration in the financial sector is the only way forward to achieve innovation, and simplifying the process is a smart business decision. Moreover, bank staffers will be in direct communication with these startups, which will be quite an intriguing experiment.

It has to be said that startups can sometimes struggle to get in touch with bank employees. This makes it harder to establish business relationships, which in turn creates friction between both parties. At the same time, BNP Paribas acknowledges that they struggle to source startups that may be capable of solving a particular issue.

Ever since the bank launched OpenUp, they have received over 1,000 signups already. Not all of these signups come from startups themselves, though, but they contribute to over 50% of the total. All of the other signups are from in-house employees who will actively provide support to startups who sign up through the portal.

To illustrate what this platform can do, it is possible for entrepreneurs and companies to post ideas to BNP Paribas directly. All of this feedback will be collected and passed on to the relevant business line managers. Depending on how the idea is evaluated, development of a proof of concept may be greenlit in the future.

Moreover, OpenUp allows bank staffers to actively engage with startups and use their expertise to help out new projects. This advice can range from business models to names, design, or financial aspects of the equation. With several hundred employees looking over the platform, it should not be too difficult to get the answers one needs.

What is rather intriguing is how BNP Paribas employees can post projects on OpenUp as well. Through a matching algorithm, their ideas will be presented to relevant startups. This is a bidirectional business relationship that is entirely automated for the most part. At the same time, the human element is only a few clicks away.

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