Intel has announced the creation of a new fintech innovation lab in Tel Aviv, The Jerusalem Post reports . The lab will be operated in association with The Floor, a fintech hub based at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
The work of the new Intel fintech lab will be centered on blockchain technology, biometrics and the Internet of Things (IoT).
“Through this collaboration, Intel will be able to lead, alongside The Floor, the development of this field in Israel and to widen the influence of technology on the financial field, from the user to the cloud,” said Sharon Puterman-Zafrir, Intel Israel’s manager of IoT.
The Floor , based at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), is the first fintech hub of its kind in Israel. Backed by Pando Group , a $250 million Chinese-Israeli venture capital fund headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, The Floor hosts local fintech entrepreneurs and provides access to Israeli fintech for leading international financial players, tech giants and venture capitalists. The hub has partnerships with international banks such as HSBC, RBS, Santander and Intesa Sanpaolo.
The Floor’s business model seems similar to that of London-based innovation lab Level39 , which in 2015 started hosting a blockchain innovation project of giant Swiss bank UBS.
“Intel brings a powerful multidisciplinary approach that could help Israel become a global capital in the field of fintech,” said Gil Devora, cofounder of The Floor.
Intel has been quietly building its expertise in distributed ledger technologies. In 2015, the tech giant started hiring engineers for a new research group dedicated to investigating hardware and software able to advance the performance, robustness and scalability of open, decentralized ledgers. Then, Intel became a member of the Hyperledger Project , a collaborative effort started in December under the leadership of the Linux Foundation to “establish, build and sustain […]
