The award ceremony took place in December 2017 in Paris, at the Palais Brongniart. The award to DreamQuark was made by selecting from a range of 140 fintech nominees. The decision was made by a jury made up of representatives from the financial sector, including Natixis, Banque de France, OFI Group, La Banque Postale, La Française and Macif Group.
Criteria for for the award included creativity and development of fintech services to the financial sector in France.
Single platform for financial services
The winner, DreamQuark, focusses on innovation in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning for financial services. The company has developed a single platform that enables financial institutions to create a host of applications based on artificial intelligence. This includes services like customer segmentation, product targeting and underwriting.
The system also allows finance companies to create systems for credit granting, asset management, compliance, anti-money laundering and fraud. The deep learning functionality can assist companies in assessing customer satisfaction and to take measures to strengthens customer retention.
According to TechCrunch DreamQuark’s platform allows financial companies to analyze their data, create models based on machine learning and apply these models on all past and future data points. In terms of digital disruption, this type of platform takes the finance sector away from reliance upon COBOL, the computer programming language that was developed some 50 years ago, and into the age of deep learning.
Commenting on the prize, Jean-Hervé Lorenzi, President of Finance Innovation said the award “has highlighted eight high-quality French Fintechs driving real innovations. The winner DreamQuark is the perfect representation of the Artificial Intelligence revolution that is currently taking place in the financial industry.”
Fintech in France
France is a growing arena for fintech companies. Many of these startups are steered by France Fintech, which is a non-profit association that focuses on the current or emerging issues in the financial services industry. One company that has benefited from this process is Shine, which provides freelancers and the self-employed with a multitasking solution platform that combines online banking with contract and invoice management. This allows for the streamlining of administrative and financial tasks.
This type of technology is highlighted in a PwC report on the state of artificial intelligence. The report, headed “Sizing the prize”, notes that services that allow business finances to be managed dynamically to match goals and which optimize client’s available funds are set to see considerable growth in 2018.
