The Venture Lab accelerator at the American University in Cairo has partnered banking software company Temenos to provide the lab’s fintech startups with access to the Temenos banking solution to be used as their development environment.
The Geneva-headquartered Temenos have over 3,000 firms across the globe, including 41 of the top 50 banks, relying on its software to process transactions. Its Temenos MarketPlace, launched in 2016, is a platform for facilitating the exchange of value between fintech providers and financial institutions.
Its collaboration with the AUC Venture Lab, the university-run accelerator which provides support to innovative Egyptian startups and runs a dedicated fintech programme, will see Temenos provide a sandbox service to startups.
A non-production cloud-based version of the best-selling Temenos T24 core banking system, this sandbox will enable startups to integrate their solutions with banking data and functionality, and test them for scalability and robustness. It will also allow them to plug into the 11 major financial institutions in Egypt already running Temenos T24.
The two partners will also collaborate on events and other community-building activities, with the AUC Venture Lab hosting Temenos events, such as the upcoming “Meet the Marketplace” in October of this year, where global fintechs that are existing members of Temenos Marketplace will be invited to showcase and demo their solutions to a number of Egyptian financial institutions.
“We are excited to be working with the AUC Venture Lab in accelerating and empowering digital innovation in Egypt. The Egyptian market is currently in an ideal position to take advantage of a rich fintech ecosystem that will help drive digital transformation across the banking industry,” said Jean-Paul Mergeai, regional director at Temenos Middle East and Africa.
“I am optimistic that our partnership with AUC Venture Lab will continue to foster the spirit of innovation in Egypt and help to pave the way for fintech startups for years to come.”
