Estonia, Financial Services, Good for Business, Latvia, Technology

Through each program, ten international startups will get the opportunity to spend up to six months in a fast-paced learning environment, grow their business and connect to banking experts and mentors, Swedbank said in a press release.

"Through the accelerator program, we are now expanding our eco-system of third party collaborations with fintechs. For the startups, it's a way to fast-track growth by gaining competence and access to more than seven million of Swedbank's customers through our Open Banking platform. For Swedbank, we hope to find partners with the purpose of building great customer value together," said Emma Heimonen, head of digital innovation at Swedbank.

"Running accelerators in this region for more than six years now, we see that the Baltics have a lot to offer to startup founders. We see a great benefit from close collaboration with corporations, like having a fintech accelerator with one of the most innovative banks in the region, Swedbank. That allows pairing forward looking founders with industry experts," said Cristobal Alonso, CEO of Startup Wise Guys.

The Swedbank business accelerator provides an opportunity for fast-track growth for Estonian startups, offering them access to capital, international experience and know-how, and to more than seven million customers of Swedbank through the Open Banking platform, Liisi Himma, chief of corporate banking Estonia, said.

Wise Guys Fintech will launch in spring 2018 and will take place at the Riga head office of Swedbank.

Startup Wise Guys is an investment company founded by private Estonian investors together with VC fund SmartCap in 2012.

The core activity of Wise Guys is to invest in early stage technology companies. To enhance the investment potential, they run accelerator program called Startup Wise Guys. They have run nine programs so far and over 80 companies have been accelerated.