BMW Financial Services Selects Startups for First US Lab

BMW Group Financial Services in the US has selected six startups for the first-ever BMW Financial Services Collaboration Lab. The start-ups will now undertake a 10-week lab at BMW Financial Services’ offices in Hilliard, Ohio, to further develop their ideas alongside leading subject matter experts in the automotive and financial sectors.

From a total 212 applications, selected domestic and international start-ups were invited to pitch their ideas live to a panel of judges from BMW Financial Services, BMW of North America, and L Marks. The panel selected these six startups to join the 10-week Collaboration Lab program:

– carLABS  – carLABS has created a cognitive, conversational AI-powered platform for automating and enhancing sales and marketing in the automotive vertical. Its solution offers car buyers a dramatically simplified shopping experience that significantly increases conversions and return on marketing spend for car sellers.

– Supermoney – Supermoney is developing a unique digital wallet. In-store and online, customers can pay with a simple QR scan. The product runs on a system of smart contracts that effectively and efficiently manage counterparty risk, protecting both buyer and seller.

– Bloom – Bloom uses public-private key encryption underpinning blockchain technology to verify customer identity and to attest to the accuracy of credit history without storing customer raw data on the servers.

– Omniscience – Omniscience Corp. are building underwriting and capital modeling solutions on top of their innovative analytics platform. They work with finserv and insurance firms to scale their analytics efforts on real world data.

– Motion Auto Insurance – Motion Auto Insurance is modern insurance for the modern world. Fully programmatic, embeddable, insurance-as-a-service delivered from directly inside your mobile app for gig/sharing economy, new modes of vehicle ownership, and autonomous driving tech.

– Wrisk USA – Wrisk is giving personal insurance a long overdue digital upgrade. It allows its customers to manage different types of insurance seamlessly through a single app and helps them understand how they are priced and what they can do to reduce their risk.

During the intensive 10-week program, the selected companies will be situated in a collaborative environment, and will benefit from access to the company’s leadership team, industry experts, investment professionals, and business education programs. L Marks will also provide fundraising support.