APPLICATIONS are now open for Asia-Pacific’s third annual FinTech Innovation Lab, Accenture’s 12-week program that helps early- and growth-stage financial technology (fintech) companies to accelerate product and business development by gaining exposure to top financial institution executives.
Applications can be made at www.fintechinnovationlab.com and will close on May 31, 2016.
Investments in Asia-Pacific fintech companies are on the rise.
During the first quarter of 2016, investments totalled $2.7 billion, representing 51 percent of the $5.3 billion invested into fintech companies globally, according to a recent Accenture study, FinTech and the Evolving Landscape.
“We’re having fintech discussions at financial institutions across Asia, as executives want to know about the latest cutting edge fintech solutions to invest in, develop or buy that can streamline services for customers,” said Jon Allaway, senior managing director at Accenture and the executive sponsor of the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific.
“That is why in our third year of the lab we have increased the number of financial institutions in the lab to 20 from 12, increased the number of participants we’ll accept in the program to 12 from seven and expanded to include insurance,” he added.
The FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is a program for entrepreneurs that are developing cutting-edge and disruptive technologies for the financial services sector – particularly in the areas of big data; analytics and cognitive computing; security and identity management; risk management and compliance; digital marketing and social media; cloud; payments; blockchain technology; talent management; and, Internet of Things applications.
Chief technology officers and senior technology executives from the financial institutions will select 12 of the applying fintech companies to participate in the Lab through a competitive process and will then provide them with intensive in-person mentoring in Hong Kong.
The 12 principal financial institutions are: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Credit Suisse, Generali, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Maybank, Morgan Stanley, Sun Life Financial and UBS.
In addition, supporting banks include: China CITIC Bank International, China Construction Bank (Asia), Macquarie, Nomura, Standard Chartered, Siam Commercial Bank, Societe Generale, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG).
Applicants must have a working beta version of their technology.
The Lab, which begins in August 2016, will partner the chosen fintech entrepreneurs with senior-level bank and insurance company executives and leading technology entrepreneurs, to help them fine-tune and develop their technologies and business strategies through a series of workshops, panel discussions, user-group sessions, networking opportunities, one-on-one meetings and presentations.
Cyberport will provide work space to participating entrepreneurs, and J Plus Hotel by YOO will assist with accommodations. The Lab culminates in November 2016 with a Demo Day presentation by selected participants in front of an audience of venture capitalists and financial industry executives.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
