This summer has been really fruitful for the Polish startup Querona. They’ve won the second edition of BNP Paribas International Hackathon in Warsaw and got an invitation to a 6-month acceleration programme organised by Bank BGŻ BNP Paribas and The Heart. Who would have thought that a one-on-one meeting at Impact’17 between Querona and Bank BGŻ BNP Paribas just a few months ago would have such good results?

Querona has done a really good job at the Hackathon, beating fourteen other startups from six different countries. The startups were hand-picked by The Heart. They‘ve all created novel personal banking services, solutions for SME or agriculture. Querona proved to be the most innovative company and swept all the prizes.

“Querona is a self-serving data warehouse and we can link to it up to a hundred different data sources just minutes after the installation. That gives you a consolidated view of internal and external data on your company,” says Piotr Czarnas, Querona CEO.

BNP Paribas International Hackathon was organised in ten cities in ten different countries. Startups from: San Francisco, Paris, Brussels, Luxembourg, Rome, Berlin, Warsaw, Istanbul, Singapore and Nanjing competed at the same time, making it a truly international event. With Ideation part over, the startups enter co-working phase when they develop their solutions, with the help from a customized support programme.

“Hackathon programme is more than just one weekend when startups program solutions and programmes for the Bank. Most importantly, it gives you an opportunity to incubate your solution together with the Bank and our partners and, of course, there’s a money prize and a chance of presenting your solution at the BNP Paribas International Hackathon finale in Paris,” says Tomasz Bogus, CEO of Bank BGŻ BNP Paribas.

Now, the company is working hard on their development at Bank BGŻ BNP Paribas & the Heart’s acceleration programme and is preparing for Demo Day in Paris. It will take place on December 1. The finalists will meet up with international fintech experts and BNP Paribas’s Executive Committee. What’s in it for the winners? Implementation of their solution by the bank.