Blockchain Startup Joins Accenture Innovation Lab

A financial innovation lab operated by management consulting firm Accenture has added a blockchain startup to its latest class.

Accenture's 2016 FinTech Innovation Lab London, the company announced yesterday, will include 15 startups. Crowdaura, which uses blockchain technology as a mechanism for issuing securities via crowdfunding, is the sole blockchain startup to be included in the class.

The selected startups will spend 12 weeks working with Accenture staff and executives from a variety of major financial institutions including Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Société Générale.

Richard Lumb, head of Accenture's financial services unit, said that the firm is "incredibly excited" to welcome the new class of startups to the accelerator.

"They offer some exciting innovations and have demonstrated exceptional creativity in what has been a record breaking year for applications from more than 30 countries, confirming that London is very much the centre of Europe’s thriving FinTech community," he said in a statement.

Crowdaura is the second blockchain-oriented startup to work within an Accenture-run startup accelerator. Last summer, Hong Kong-based remittance startup Bitspark took part in Accenture's FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific 2015.

London image via Shutterstock