Voting Opens For Benzinga Global Fintech Awards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Voting Opens for 2017 Benzinga Global Fintech Awards
Companies to compete in social media voting campaign for awards in 19 categories

DETROIT— Benzinga, a leading online financial media publication and data provider, announced today that voting has begun to determine the finalists for the 3rd annual Benzinga Global Fintech Awards. The event is dedicated to recognizing outstanding innovation in financial technology specific to the capital markets.

Companies competing in the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards gather votes in the form of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn shares of their company profile hosted on the Benzinga Fintech Awards site.

Company profile pages contain a widget that creates posts on those social networks automatically. Those in a company’s network only need to click on the widget to vote. Participants can vote up to three times, with a vote on each social network.

The number of social votes a company receives will be weighted as a factor determining its placement in the Benzinga Fintech Awards. This means companies with the most social votes will have an edge on the competition during the judging process.

Last year, over 250 companies applied to the Benzinga Fintech Awards and nearly 90 became finalists. The 2016 Benzinga Fintech Awards Judges Panel, which included Nicole Sherrod of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. AMTD, Matt Ober, formerly of WorldQuant, Michael Maxworthy of Marlin & Associates, Matt Harris of Bain Capital, and Ross Garon of Point72/Cubist determined the final winners.

The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards is well-known for its off-the-wall approach to fintech and unique programming. Last year’s event saw former New York Giant Tiki Barber and Gerson Lehrman Group founder Mark Gerson talk about monetizing athletes and financial innovation, a performance from America’s Got Talent finalist mentalist Oz Pearlman, and a day of rapid-fire panels featuring leaders of a wide range of fintech disciplines.

This year, Benzinga will focus on highlighting innovation from across the globe, as fintech scenes around the world experience record investment and institutional adoption. Insights and data from countries around the world are increasingly driving investment decisions as Forex, binary options, real estate and other alternative investments gain popularity among traders and investors.

From there, companies will be evaluated by a panel of judges made up of many leading figures in the fintech space to determine winners in each category.

Entrepreneurs will have the chance to enter their companies into one of 19 categories:

• Finding Alpha
• Analysis Platforms & Apps
• Research Platforms & Apps
• Best Robo-Advisor
• Best Tools for Financial Advisors
• Trade Recommendations
• Best Use of Blockchain
• Educational Platforms & Apps
• Solving Problems Through Payments
• Proprietary Technology & APIs
• Lending & Alternative Investments
• Leveling the Playing Field
• Best Forex Product
• Making Compliance Cool: Best RegTech Company
• Insurance Innovation: Best InsurTech Solution
• Investing For Millennials
• Best Institutional Innovator
• Most Accessible Underbanked Solution
• Other

Additionally, Benzinga will add a group of special categories to the Global Fintech Awards, to recognize innovative figures and companies that don’t fit into one of the above categories. These awards will be known as the Zingies and categories include, among others:

• Best UI/Intuitive Design
• Financial Reporter of the Year
• Best Financial Marketing Campaign
• Best Fintech Podcast
• Best Fintech Incubator
• Most Impactful Fintech Venture Capitalist

Finally, the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards will recognize outstanding fintech talent from around the world as the 2017 Class of BZ Fintechnicians, highlighting top fintech personnel from companies from each continent.

The online fintech competition will lead up to a Benzinga Global Fintech Awards Gala in New York City in the spring, where Benzinga will present the winners of the 2017 Benzinga Global Fintech Awards.

Media Information
Spencer White
events@benzinga.com (for media email inquiries please put “MEDIA” at the beginning of the subject line)
313-723-2000

About Benzinga Global Fintech Awards
Designed to uncover the most innovative companies within the financial technology capital markets sector, the Benzinga Fintech Awards provide winning finalists with new opportunities for growth and exposure. For last year's winners, please visit www.benzingafintechawards.com or use the hashtag #BZAwards.

About Benzinga
Benzinga is a leading originator of actionable financial insights for traders and investors. Benzinga’s news desk is constantly breaking stories and moving billions of dollars of market capitalization through its real-time terminal, Benzinga Pro. Benzinga’s original content is syndicated to 70 partner websites, such as Yahoo! Finance MSN, CNNMoney, Fox Business, Marketwatch, and more. Benzinga is the leading provider of news to the North American brokerage community, with a client list including TD Ameritrade, LightSpeed, TradeKing, and many more. The company is headquartered in downtown Detroit and dedicated to driving Detroit’s renaissance. For more information, check out Benzinga.com, Cloud.Benzinga.com and Pro.Benzinga.com.