Open Up Challenge

The Open Up Challenge is a new challenge prize run by Nesta situated at the forefront of the open banking transformation.

They are inviting talented teams - fintechs, data scientists and others – to take this unique opportunity to develop next-generation services, apps and tools that create game-changing value for United Kingdom (UK) small businesses. In doing so, the goal is to drive greater transparency, choice and innovation for small business customers.

APPLICATION WINDOW

CLOSED

DEADLINE

31 May 2017

PRIZES

The Open Up Challenge is a £5,000,000 (five million pound) prize fund:

CASH AWARDS
- In the Innovation Stage you’ll get a £50,000 (fifty thousand pound) development grant up-front, and then share in a £1,000,000 (one million pound) reward pot if you’re one of up to ten successful Stage 1 prize winners.
- If you successfully enter the Market Ready Stage you’ll get a development grant from a pot of £500,000 (five hundred thousand pounds) for up to five teams, plus a share of a £2,000,000 (two million pound) pot if you are one of the final three Stage 2 prize winners.

EXCLUSIVE EARLY-STAGE ACCESS TO DATA
- You’ll get access to their Data Sandbox, containing one of the largest anonymised UK banking transaction datasets ever released, and APIs aligned with the forthcoming Open Banking standard.
- Use the Data Sandbox to securely build and test your product so you can hit the ground running in 2018.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT
- You’ll be able to access technical support provided by leading practitioners – covering legal and regulatory considerations, data, user experience and more – to help you get market ready.

They also have travel stipends for two people per team to come to London to pitch.

OTHER KEY DATES

23 March 2017: Applications open.
5 July 2017: Stage 1 development grant winners notified.
10 July 2017: Open Up Data Sandbox goes live.
9 – 30 November 2017: Window for Stage 1 finalists due diligence, including interviews.
7 December: Pitching day in London.
15 December: Stage 1 prize awards made.

HOST COUNTRY

United Kingdom

Note that while some organisers may accept applications from all around the world, you may still be required to travel to the host country in order to take part in the later stages of a competition for instance, or you may be required to live there for a period of time to take part in a funded programme (e.g. scholarship, incubator, accelerator).

FIND OUT MORE

Credit: Open Up Challenge

Date Added: 11 Apr 2017