Nordea Bank : What does fitness have to do with a bank?

26-01-17 14:00 | About Nordea

Nordea CEO Casper von Koskull invited Sascha Wischek, CEO of start-up Fjuul, to the stage during the bank's fourth-quarter 2016 results presentation today to answer precisely that question.

Finnish-based Fjuul (pronounced 'fuel'), which participated in Nordea's three-month Accelerator Programme last year, has developed a fitness app that turns exercise into rewards.

After Fjuul's concept was basically in place, the start-up bounced ideas off of a business champion at Nordea to further develop the concept. 'A start-up lives and breathes with the people you meet,' Wischek told us in an interview after his appearance on stage. 'We could sit around the table, put the customer in the middle and see what would be the most relevant and valuable experience. That was really powerful.'

The app tracks your everyday physical activities, whether this is a trip to the store or a night out, and tells you which physical activities have most impact on your health and fitness, rather than just counting daily steps and moves.

'We have a big mission: to bring well-being to everyday life,' Wischek said. 'We sit too much and move too little and it has a pretty severe impact on your health,' he said, adding that eight out of 10 people say they don't exercise because they're too busy.

These everyday physical activities are then turned into rewards. For example, if you reach your personal goal, you might get a discount on your life insurance. 'We're pretty agnostic on device,' Wischek added. 'We're more interested in the data and what we can do with the data. We care about the value proposition to the clients.'

Fjuul is currently wrapping up the pilot and will then work towards a commercial roll-out, he said.