Eggsplore launches its Brussels hub and announces its first partners

Eggsplore is a pan-European Fintech initiative where knowledge and experience, innovations and technology can be shared.

Eggsplore is opening its Brussels headquarters and launching operations on 28th January 2016 with structural partners Belfius, BNP Paribas Fortis, Cresco, Euroclear, ING, KBC, McKinsey & Company, Proximus and SmartVentures and SWIFT. Agoria Banking Technology Club, Febelfin, iMinds, Solvay Business School, Startups.be and Vlerick Business School are among the associate and research partners that will also work with Eggsplore.

In the next decade digital mega-trends will have an enormous impact on the financial services industries. Customers are increasingly demanding real-time value-added services, financial value-chains are being redesigned, new actors are entering the playing field and the regulatory environment is undergoing tremendous change. Eggsplore aspires to help its partners and the consumer in capturing the tremendous value to be gained from this digital disruption.

In 2017, a major Fintech Hub of 4000 m² will be established in the proximity of Brussels airport as a European centre for the financial solutions of tomorrow. In anticipation Eggsplore will operate from a 800sqm office. Projective, The Glue, Qover and VentureWise are among the first residents. The hub is more than just a co-working space, it will serve as a central meeting point for events and co-creation for the European Fintech community as well as a landing hub for non-European Fintech companies that want to enter the continental European market.

"We want to develop an ecosystem that brings together all the relevant players that want to collaborate in developing and offering the financial services of the future: funds, financial services institutions such as banks or insurance companies and large and small technology players," says Jürgen Ingels. "Collaboration is the name of the game and creates opportunities for both established actors as well as new technology start-ups.” 

Jürgen Ingels is one of the Belgian pioneers of payment solutions. In 2000 he founded the payment software company Clear2Pay and sold it in 2014 for 375 million euros. Alongside his venture capital fund activities he decided to roll out a FinTech ecosystem together with Wim De Waele, who previously was CEO of iMinds, Belgium’s leading software technology incubator, and active in early-stage funding of start-ups.

Eggsplore is a partnership organisation, consisting of major established financial institutions, technology and knowledge providers, as well as universities and business schools. The structural partners are part of a governing board that will set the strategy and focus for the organisation. Belfius, BNP Paribas Fortis, Cresco, Euroclear, KBC, ING, McKinsey & Company, Proximus, SmartVentures and SWIFT have already committed as structural partners, others will be added over the next few months. Agoria Banking Technology Club, Febelfin, iMinds, Solvay Business School, Startups.be and Vlerick Business School are among the associate and research partners that will work with Eggsplore. The organization has a strong content focus, with strategic programs focusing on both technology areas (Internet of Things, Distributed Ledger, Artificial Intelligence) as well as business areas (external innovation, growth company scaling, regulation). It aims at a broad member base of Fintech companies that will benefit from the interaction among themselves and with larger players and policy makers. It has now established strong partnerships in the local community but will extend this to the international scene over the next months.

Eggsplore will also host corporate accelerators and boot camps to support its partners in their innovation initiatives. Eggsplore is an entirely neutral and open organisation governed by a strong structure and code of conduct, which guarantees such principles and the efficient interaction of its partners and members.

“This initiative reflects our ambition to put Brussels and mainland Europe on the map in the Fintech space and the digital financial services value-chain”, says Wim De Waele. “With European and worldwide headquarters of companies such as our strategic partners, a strong start-up community, excellent available talent and the European Commission and other regulators nearby, we have all the assets to become a European and international centre”.

(see included press-release)

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