PKO Bank Polski and start-ups at the same table

11 start-ups had the opportunity to present its solutions during the meeting. Polish project Atsora and its Momentum platform used to analyse companies’ current revenues and costs was among them. This solution helps to save time as it is integrated with other applications, which in turn allows for automatic data exchange. The platform allows to control the financial situation thanks to on-going analysis and categorization of costs, revenues and cash flow planning. It is also used for sales cycle management, analysis and visualization of business hypotheses. In turn, a London-based company presented its software and banking products offering, including Internet and mobile banking.

- The present market, which is subject to dynamic changes heading into many interesting directions, requires openness to inspiration, having a direct impact on innovation. In this regard, it is worth to support ambitious and innovative projects with a high market potential - says Jakub Grzechnik, director of Mobile and Internet Banking Centre at PKO Bank Polski.

Innovative projects, flexibility of young firms and know-how of corporations are a great way to build global position in the area of technological solutions. During individual sessions with the representatives of PKO Bank Polski, young entrepreneurs had an excellent opportunity to present their projects, discuss ideas and the chances to develop the business in the competitive international market. Thanks to such initiatives, PKO Bank Polski is looking for areas to support original and unconventional projects, introducing the best solution within the organization.

- Confrontation with new solutions is certainly an invigorating impulse to develop innovative solutions meeting the needs of our organization. We invited to the dialogue young companies that have comprehensive business idea and based on modern technologies are able to create competition in the financial market - says Grzegorz Pawlicki, director of the Innovation and Customer Experience Office at PKO Bank Polski.

PKO Bank Polski supported this kind of initiative for the first time and plans to organize further initiatives, workshops and meetings with young entrepreneurs in the near future. The main objective of this endeavour is to incorporate best services and technology projects developed by young authors to the offer.

D-RAFT Corporate Demo Day is an initiative aimed at presenting the most interesting technological solutions and promotion of cooperation between the largest corporations and leading European start-ups. Each meeting gives the managers of corporations like PKO Bank Polski, Mastercard or Orbis easy reach to projects responding to their needs, from international ecosystem of more than 200 accelerators, investment funds and technological parks. D-RAFT helps to track and discover new opportunities through regular alerts in key areas to the company's strategy. Besides running "pitch to pilot” start-up programs for corporations, D-RAFT is building an international community of corporate innovation and venturing leaders in Europe, organizing regular roundtables and corporate demo days, presenting the most interesting start-ups in selected areas.

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PKO Bank Polski is a leader of the Polish banking sector. After three quarters of 2015, PKO Bank Polski Group posted a consolidated net profit of PLN 2 165 million. PKO Bank Polski ranked #1 with six stars in the overall classification in the Forbes magazine Best Corporate Bank ranking. The Bank ranked #3 in the Banking Quality 2013 ranking of TNS Polska and Puls Biznesu. The Bank’s Contact Center, for the sixth time in a row, was a winner in a regular survey of banks’ hotlines carried out by ARC Rynek i Opinia. The Bank won for another consecutive year in the ranking of the top 50 banks in Poland published by the financial monthly Bank. PKO Bank Polski won this year’s edition of the ranking in the category of Property Financing Banks and ranked third among Consumer Finance Banks. PKO Bank Polski was awarded for the implementation of the IKO application in the Electronic Banking and E-Finance category of the 12th edition of the Financial Institutions IT Leader 2013  competition of Gazeta Bankowa. PKO Bank Polski was also awarded for its Innovation Centre in the category Back Office Systems. Around a dozen financial institutions, mainly representing the banking and insurance industry, competed for the IT Leader award. The jury of the Competition of the 8th E-Economy Congress awarded PKO Junior in the Project of the Year category. PKO Bank Polski also enjoys the strongest image among Polish banks. According to a prestigious magazine The Banker which values PKO Bank Polski’s brand name at USD 1.25 billion, the Bank remains the most valuable brand in Polish banking sector. According to the ranking of the Most Valuable Polish Brands 2013 by Rzeczpospolita daily, PKO Bank Polski remained the most valuable brand in the financial industry category, valued at PLN 3.7 billion. In 2012, the Jury of the Banking Leaders Competition, organised as a part of the Polish Economic Congress, awarded PKO Bank Polski as the Best Bank and the Most Innovative Bank for the new offer of School Saving Associations. In rankings based on students’ opinions, the Bank was ranked as one of the best employers in Poland. The Bank’s high position is also confirmed by surveys carried out by the international company Universum Global and AIESEC among students of Poland’s best universities. PKO Bank Polski is also a winner of the Golden Banker 2013 award in the Best Mortgage Loan and the Financial Innovation categories for its IKO application.