I've recently agreed to serve as a judge for the 2012 Innotribe Startup Challenge. The event provides an opportunity for FinTech and Financial Service startups and innovators to meet potential investors, customers and partners from financial institutions and FinTech investors. See the bottom of this post for info on how to receive an invite to the event.

Sponsored by SWIFT (www.swift.com), the Innotribe Startup Challenge (http://www.innotribestartup.com) fosters collaboration between emerging FinTech and Financial Service innovators and SWIFT's member community.

• Applicants to the Challenge enjoy online exposure and introductions to hundreds of potential partners and customers from SWIFT's member community, as well as investors and other members of the startup ecosystem.
• Semi-finalists, selected by a panel of expert judges, are invited to one of three regional Challenge Showcases (New York - Feb 8, Bangkok - Apr 25/6, and Belfast - late June), to pitch and network with a hand-picked group of 40-50 investors and financial industry decision makers.
• The 15 most promising companies from across all three Challenge Showcases, as selected by qualified decision makers and investors from across the SWIFT community, will be invited to present at Sibos, SWIFT's annual financial industry trade show. Sibos (www.sibos.com) will take place this year in Osaka, Japan in October 2012.
• One or more early-stage winners selected by the Sibos audience will share in a $50K in cash prize.

The Challenge is open to companies working in financial technology or technology-enabled financial services (no consulting or outsourcing) such as payments, securities, trading, social media tools, big data/data analytics, security, identity, b2b or b2b2c mobile, small business apps & services &/or IT infrastructure. Early-stage applicants must be less than 3 years old with less than $1M in combined revenue and investment in the last 12 months. Later-stage applicants may be of any maturity level, but the products/services they submit must still be 'under the radar'. Applications for the February 8th NYC Challenge Showcase are due by January 13, 2012. To learn more and apply, please visit http://www.innotribestartup.com. Special invite for Celent Clients: Please contact me if you are a banker and would like to attend the Innotribe Startup Challenge. Celent has been granted several passes to the events and we can share these with interested individuals (banks only please).