Finastra ran its first internal hackathon in Paris, five years ago, says Chirine Bourgerie, Director Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Venture at Finastra, which sparked the company’s journey with fostering innovation through collaboration. Speaking at FinTECHTalents 2018, Bourgerie describes that first hackathon as “really amazing.”  Finastra found that there were so many interesting ideas that emerged when the hackathon brought people together from different regions and different skills set and allowed them to build whatever they wanted. Those ideas ended up inspiring others at Finastra who hadn’t even taken part in the hackathon, she adds.

“Collaboration is a key item for Finastra, the future of finance is open,” says Bourgerie. “We feel that 99% of innovation is happening outside our organization. We need to be able to source innovation and bring it to our customers.”