GFT joins Barcelona Tech City

Barcelona, ​​16 May 2018 - Barcelona Tech City, an association that brings together entrepreneurs and start-ups from Barcelona's digital and technological sectors, has announced the incorporation of GFT as a Corporate Partner. In this way, GFT, global technology partner for the digital transformation of the financial industry, becomes part of the Barcelona Tech City community with the aim of driving co-creation and open innovation to develop the banking of the future.

This partnership will allow GFT to be part of the Barcelona Tech City community to promote innovation and transformation, as well as collaborate and carry out open innovation projects with the rest of the association's partners. Aware that the collaboration with start-ups represents one of the main procedures of innovation for the financial industry, having a partner like GFT means  opening new possibilities for the associated start-ups of Barcelona Tech City to grow in the market.

GFT has already worked together with more than 40 start-ups and fintechs and is now looking for new alliances between the Barcelona Tech City partners. In this context, the agreement aims to establish a collaboration channel with GFT in which the start-ups of the Barcelona Tech City ecosystem can benefit from this relationship with the financial industry. The start-ups of the association can take advantage of the knowledge of the GFT innovation team that develops new business models in all sectors, focusing on topics such as blockchain, cloud engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things.

For Carlos Eres, Managing Director of GFT in Spain, "Barcelona Tech City has established itself as one of the pillars for the start-up ecosystem in Barcelona with international projection. Our company is still committed to developing innovative solutions for our customers in a collaborative way, but also with start-ups, fintechs and other technology partners. In this sense, the collaboration with Barcelona Tech City makes it possible for us to access and collaborate with new start-ups ".

Miguel Vicente, president of Barcelona Tech City, believes that "incorporating GFT as a partner provides great expertise into one of the business verticals that will grow the most in the near future. The use of technologies such as blockchain, Big Data or artificial intelligence will radically change financial services in banking. Thanks to the participation of companies like GFT in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, Barcelona will be able to play an important role in this revolution".

Open innovation at the GFT LAB

GFT has been driving co-creation for 7 years. The company thinks that doing innovation alone is impossible, and even more difficult in an environment of exponential disruption where changes and advances in markets and technologies are frenetic. In order to be able to innovate rapidly and on a scale, it is necessary to have the appropriate resources, with both internal and external talent. The first Innovation LAB of GFT has been an example of how to work innovation openly, accompanying its customers in the process of digitization with the help and collaboration of other companies in the sector, start-ups and especially fintechs. Thanks to the continuous collaboration, the financial services of the future are being shaped, making the LAB a benchmark of open innovation for the industry. The LAB located in Sant Cugat has been the first of the company where disruptive ideas have been transformed into tangible and real solutions for banks.

In addition to the LAB, the German multinational has launched other initiatives that also promote co-creation. This is the case of CODE_n, an international innovation platform that connects start-ups, technological pioneers and consolidated companies in a global network. This allows exploring the disruptive trends of the financial sector and leveraging the most from the innovative spirit of the participants. In this sense, the agreement with Barcelona Tech City represents another step in this approach of collaboration with start-ups and other agents of the entrepreneurial ecosystem for technological innovation.

Barcelona Tech City is an initiative that represents the technological and digital sectors of the city. Their main objectives are the consolidation of Barcelona in the technological field, the promotion of entrepreneurship, the connection with the talent of schools and universities and the creation of an adequate framework for the creation of digital projects. After GFT’s incorporation, the organization continues to consolidate as one of the most important hubs in Europe, representing more than 600 companies in the digital and technological sector located in Barcelona.

Please find more information about Barcelona Tech City here.