Laurens Hamerlinck, Head of Fintech Venturing at ABN AMRO, shares the inner workings of the ABN AMRO + Techstars Future of Finance Accelerator, its impact, and the philosophy that has kept it alive and thriving since 2020.
Corporate accelerators are notoriously difficult to sustain. Internal priorities shift, leadership changes, and the initial enthusiasm fades. Yet ABN AMRO’s Future of Finance accelerator, run in partnership with Techstars, is now heading into its sixth edition – and growing stronger.
What does it take to build a corporate accelerator that lasts?
In this video, Laurens shares how ABN AMRO + Techstars Future of Finance Accelerator has grown into one of Europe’s most established bank-led fintech programs, now entering its sixth edition.
Discover why sustaining corporate innovation requires far more than a three-month accelerator, how ABN AMRO spends an entire year identifying trends, recruiting startups across Europe’s fintech hubs, and turning accelerator relationships into real pilots and partnerships. Laurens also explains why “absorptive capacity” – an organisation’s ability to act on external innovation – is often a bigger challenge than finding promising startups.
Key insights include how data-driven proofs-of-concept help overcome internal resistance, why nearly 40% of participating startups have entered serious pilot engagements with the bank since 2020, and how the program’s “give first” philosophy continues to create value for founders, mentors, and the broader fintech ecosystem.
Watch to learn how ABN AMRO has built a corporate innovation model that delivers measurable impact while maintaining long-term relevance and support across the organisation.
About Laurens Hamerlinck
Laurens Hamerlinck has 15+ years of experience in corporate innovation. As Head of Fintech Venturing at ABN AMRO, he drives innovation through fintech collaboration and partnerships with leading investment firms Motive Partners and Techstars. Laurens was at the cradle of the ABN AMRO + Techstars Future of Finance Accelerator, a fintech-focused startup program in Amsterdam, currently sourcing its 6th cohort.
About ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO is a leading Northwest European bank for retail, corporate and private banking clients, headquartered in Amsterdam. For our clients, we aim to be a personal bank in the digital age. A bank that shapes and enables the transition to a sustainable society, together with our clients and partners. Our efforts are based on our purpose: “Banking for better, for generations to come”.
