BeSure Wins Inaugural Babson FinTech Startup Pitch Competition
Mahdi Rahideh, Giorgio de Camargo Andrade Bonachela, Qadeer Shahbaz ‘23, and Santiago Coppoletta ‘23 from the group BeSure won the inaugural Babson FinTech Startup Pitch Competition, sponsored by BlueSnap. The group also took home $1,000 in cash prizes for its fintech idea.
BeSure strives to remove the foreign exchange risk for the hundreds of thousands of international students in the United States. The goal is for BeSure to manage the risk for customers through an easy-to-understand insurance policy, in which the company handles the complicated hedging transactions behind the scenes so that customers get a fixed exchange rate for the duration of their studies.
Hosted by the Stephen D. Cutler Center for Investments and Finance, the competition featured select students from the undergraduate fintech course taught by Assistant Professor Linghang Zeng. Six teams presented their startup ideas to a group of esteemed fintech professionals, including Abdul Abdirahman, senior associate at F-Prime Capital; Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO at BlueSnap; Deniz A. Johnson, chief operating officer at Stratyfy; and Zeng.
The duo of Maria Eduarda Rudge ‘23 and Omar Abdellah ‘23 placed second with their idea called Bark, a money-managing app designed to help college students and young adults manage their finances. Bark is designed to have a range of features such as smart budgeting, artificial intelligence saving suggestions, artificial intelligence categorization of spending, and sending money. The app acts as a consolidated “one-stop-shop” for all personal finance needs, which creates a seamless and innovative budgeting experience.
The team of Bridget Handley ‘22 and Yehya Albakri (Olin class of ‘23) placed third with their idea for Kite, a brokerage that takes an active approach to guiding modern investors to make smarter investment decisions through an engaging investment education experience.
The second- and third-place teams each won $750 for their ideas.
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