Singapore, 7 November 2019… The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced today the 20 finalists for the Global FinTech Hackcelerator. The finalists will pitch their solutions at the Global FinTech Hackcelerator Demo Day at the 2019 Singapore FinTech Festival x Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SFF x SWITCH).
2 The finalists were selected through two parallel scouting programmes – the Local Programme, to tackle problem statements originating from the financial industry in Singapore and the broader Asia region; and the International Programme, which comprises winners of FinTech competitions in other regions.
In the Local Programme, MAS shortlisted 10 winners from over 200 submissions from across 30 countries to address 70 problem statements in three focus areas – (i) Financial Inclusion, (ii) Insurance, (iii) Banking and Finance and (iv) a General category. More than half of the submissions came from Asia, and a quarter were from Singapore.
The International Programme participants comprised 10 winners, two per country, from FinTech competitions in five countries (Abu Dhabi, Kenya, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States of America). More than 400 FinTechs participated in the competition across the five countries.
For more details on the Local and International Programmes, refer to Annex A.
3 During Demo Day on 11 November, finalists will present their innovations and the top three winners will win S$50,000 in prize money each. All 20 finalists will also receive a S$20,000 cash stipend and be fast-tracked in their applications to receive grant funding under the MAS Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) Proof-of-Concept Scheme
4 The Global FinTech Hackcelerator, supported by KPMG Digital Village, matches innovative market-ready solutions to address real industry needs. For details on the finalists, judging panel and corporate mentors for the Local Programme, refer to Annexes B and C.
5 Mr Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, MAS, said, “The Global FinTech Hackcelerator continues to be a great platform for FinTechs to showcase and contextualise their innovative solutions for the industry. Many finalists from the past three years of this programme have gone on to achieve successes in the industry. Some of them have also secured partnership deals with their Global FinTech Hackcelerator corporate champions. We look forward to more success stories coming out from this year’s finalists.”
6 Mr Chia Tek Yew, Head of Financial Services Advisory, KPMG Singapore said, “The International Programme has allowed us to reach out to the international FinTech community and bring fresh ideas into the Global FinTech Hackcelerator programme. We found FinTech players with innovative solutions to address pressing issues, such as around financial inclusion, to help developing countries facing similar issues in the South-East Asia region.”
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About the Singapore FinTech Festival
Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) is the world’s largest FinTech festival and a global platform for the FinTech community. The 2018 festival saw 45,000 participants from over 127 countries, hosted more than 250 global luminaries and 480 exhibitors. Attendees comprised FinTech players, technopreneurs, policy makers, financial industry leaders, private equity/venture capitalist investors, and academics. The festival featured highlights such as the FinTech Conference with a new AI in Finance Summit and Global Investors’ Summit. There were also traditional features such as the FinTech Awards, Global FinTech Hackcelerator, Innovation Lab Crawl and Industry Networking and Workshops. The Festival is organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in partnership with The Association of Banks in Singapore and in collaboration with SingEx Holdings. Find out more at www.fintechfestival.sg .
About SWITCH
Organised by Enterprise Singapore, National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF) and Intellectual Property Intermediary (IPI) Singapore, SWITCH is a platform where scientific discoveries and advancements are transformed into disruptive technology applications that will redefine the way we live. It focuses on deep tech applications in the areas of manufacturing, urban solutions, health and biomedical sciences and digital services.
SWITCH is where companies identify new technologies for business transformation and where collaborations are formed. It convenes entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, innovator and industry professionals from diverse backgrounds. Find out more at www.switchsg.org .
[1] The MAS Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) Proof of Concept (POC) scheme provides funding support for experimentation, development and dissemination of nascent innovative technologies in the financial services sector.
[2] Deal Fridays are curated deal-making sessions for facilitating investment into start-ups and held every Friday from 21 June to 25 October 2019. The 20 finalists of the Global FinTech Hackcelerator had a dedicated Deal Fridays session for them to network and pitch to investors.
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