KlickEx, Waratek Win Innotribe Startup Contest

Swift's innovation offshoot Innotribe announced the winners of its worldwide Startup Challenge Thursday.

The top startup award, worth $50,000, went to KlickEx, which has developed a regulated clearing service for central and commercial banks. Meanwhile, the top innovator award went to Waratek for a product that's designed to tackle the future use of Java at a time when banks are warming up to infrastructure virtualization and private clouds.

Altogether, more than 200 early-stage startups and growth-stage companies worldwide competed in the Innotribe 2013 Challenge. The contest included events in New York, London and Singapore, with those startups pitching their ideas in six minutes to an audience of press, bankers, venture capitalists and technologists. The finalists from each event competed at Swift's annual conference held this week.

Finding ways to connect startups to bankers is one the major goals of Innotribe. Some fintech companies, like Yodlee, are also hosting business matchmaking events to foster connections.