M-Payg wins Impact Startup Award, important for alternative business models

M-Payg and Spar Nord took home the two awards at Copenhagen Fintech Innovation Day 2017. The victory was an important acknowledgement of alternative business models for one of the M-Payg co-founder.

Two awards were handed out at Copenhagen finch Innovation Day 2017. One for the most innovative action within the fintech ecosystem and one for a startup with the biggest impact within the context of the UN sustainable development goals.

Read: Key takeaways for startups from the fintech event here

Before any awards were handed out, Copenhagen Fintech were commended for their work. This year’s participants were better than ever and that was to a certain degree attributed to the organization.

More than an NGO

This years winner of the Innovation Award was Spar Nord’s Future Finance initiative. A platform that opens up for third party to engage in cooperation with the bank. One of the products to come out of the initiative is Ernit an IoT piggy bank for children.

The impact startup award winner was decided by a combination of audience and judge voting. M-PAYG, Hiveonline and Penstable all pitched. All of them with admirable goals, but in the end there could be only one winner. 

Klavs Hjort, from Danske Bank, announced M-Payg as the winner of this years competition. The fact that their solution is built around fintech ended up being the heaviest argument. The judges and the jury both agreed. 

David Reerman Dizon took the stage to accept the price. For him the acknowledgement serves as motivation and is useful in the companies fight to be viewed as more than a NGO.

“Thank you very much for the price. For our team it is important in our daily work. But in the grander scheme of things it also puts a focus on sustainable business models. We are often categorized as a NGO, but we see ourselves as a new way of doing business.”