BFC Bulletins Monthly News Digest
Sberbank has been at the forefront of many innovations in recent years thanks to its repositioning of itself as a technology company that aims to provide both financial and non-financial services that cover as many consumer needs as possible. During the beginning of this transformation, Sberbank sought out collaborative partnerships with others; however, it has now developed its own internal accelerator, SberUp. Although this move came with risks, Sberbank found that it was much cheaper to go this route and that this encouraged greater loyalty to the bank. It also served to develop a healthy corporate culture among employees.
Sberbank’s internal accelerator program is a five-step approach:
- call for applications,
- initial application review,
- final application selection,
- pre-acceleration and
- acceleration.
The program is currently in the final step with 32 internal teams, each working to develop a demo. At the end, teams will present their demos before Sberbank management, with the strongest teams receiving investments of up to RUB 10 million for further development.
The success of the program thus far has spurred the bank to plan to conduct similar efforts twice per year. Sberbank also plans to take some key knowledge and skills gained from the program and incorporate it into the bank’s general corporate training programs.
