Successfully kick starting new FinTech partnerships and collaboration
11 April 2017, Hong Kong – SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator, along with main partners, Standard Chartered Bank – also a founding member, and Fidelity International, today announced the successful outcomes of the programme enabling international growth stage companies to expand their operations within Asia.
Standard Chartered Bank has initiated Proof of Concept projects with two companies:
– Robo-advisory for wealth management: Bambu is a B2B Robo-advisory company that builds intelligent software and investment solutions to improve the efficiency of wealth management.
– RegTech utilising distributed ledger technology: KYC Chain is a platform to provide greater convenience and security to users of distributed ledger technology. It allows users to manage their digital identities securely while businesses and financial institutions are able to manage customer data in a reliable and easy manner.
– Mr Shameek Kundu, Standard Chartered’s Global Head of Data, Technology Strategy and Innovation, said: “Standard Chartered Bank is proud to partner the Supercharger FinTech Accelerator Programme, which gives us the opportunity to team up with the brightest technology companies in our Asian footprint and to deliver the best service to our clients. We are delighted that the programme is taking place in Hong Kong, a key market for us, giving promising fintechs a springboard to the rest of Asia.”
– Mr Stuart Morley, Head of Technology for Asia & Central at Fidelity International, said: “We believe innovation, in terms of solutions and operating behaviour, is critical to providing the best possible service to our clients and should be at the heart of everything we do as a firm. We also believe in the power of collaboration and the SuperCharger program has enabled us to partner with some of the best startups and talent based in Hong Kong and also globally – partnerships that have enabled us to evolve our understanding of the potential of the fintech market and allowed the startups to evolve their own, exciting business propositions. SuperCharger is an important and valued component of our global innovation approach.”
This announcement at today’s SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator 2.0 Demo Day marked the successful completion of another 12-week programme from the world’s first fintech accelerator dedicated to both start-ups and scale-up global fintech companies aiming to capture the growth markets of Asia. The programme leverages on Hong Kong’s strength as Asia’s finance and technology gateway.
The success of the accelerator has been attributed to its strong partnership with corporate backers and designing the selection process to be demand-led by concrete business cases. Ms Veronika Kuznetsova, SuperCharger’s Managing Director, explained: “Such an achievement highlights the effectiveness of SuperCharger as a sustainable model for facilitating dialogues between the decision makers of the financial industry and the forward-thinking techpreneurs from startups, which ultimately leads to the advancing of the fintech ecosystem in Asia.”
Built from the ground up in just two years, SuperCharger has gained significant momentum. Its location is strategic as Asia is now the largest market in the world for fintech with US$10 billion invested in 2016. Mr Janos Barberis, SuperCharger’s Founder, said: “Our goal is to make SuperCharger the leading partnership builder between financial institutions and fintech companies. With this Demo Day, we now have the track record, team, alumni network and partners we can reach this goal and firmly establish ourselves, and be recognised, as Asia’s leading fintech accelerator.”
SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator 3.0 will open for applications in the summer of 2017, enabling up and coming fintech companies to scale across Asia.
SuperCharger Fintech Accelerator
Leveraging on Hong Kong’s traditional strength as Asia’s finance and technology gateway, SuperCharger is a 12-week Fintech Accelerator Programme backed by Standard Chartered Bank, Fidelity International and Cyberport, among others. In its first batch, SuperCharger 1.0 received over 160 applications from more than 25 countries globally and selected 8 Fintechs. The selected companies had raised between US$ 200,000 and 150 million and ranged from early-stage to late-stage growth Fintech companies. Throughout the programme, SuperCharger’s 2000 sq. ft. co-working office was enriched by the participation and mentorship of more than 150 individuals, including VCs, mentors, government officials, journalists and the next generation of young entrepreneurs.
SuperCharger’s finalists and alumni are shaping the future of finance in Hong Kong and beyond. For more information about SuperCharger and its Demo Day, please visit www.fintechsupercharger.com, or contact hello@fintechsupercharger.com.
SUPERCHARGER FINTECH ACCELERATOR 2.0 – COHORT LIST
1. Bambu – Wealth Management – is a B2B Robo-advisory company that builds intelligent software and investment solutions to improve the efficiency of wealth management.
2. Clare.ai – Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots – Clare.ai is building a white-label chatbot to help banks deliver customer service with more controls and cost efficiencies. It provides a conversational solution based on machine learning algorithms and natural language processing.
3. Entersoft – Cybersecurity – Entersoft is an application security provider based in Australia. It integrates offensive assessment, proactive monitoring and managed security to provide cost-effective and reliable solutions.
5. FinChat – RegTech – FinChat Technology is a mobile-compliance monitoring service provider based in Singapore. Through its all-in-one mobile compliance solution, FinChat ensures regulatory compliance and facilitates collaborative pursuits between financial institutions.
6. Foris – Payments – Foris is Southeast Asia’s universal money application. Launching in Hong Kong and Singapore in Q1 2017, it will provide a multi-currency account that allows users to manage money at perfect interbank exchange rates.
7. KYC Chain – RegTech – is a platform to provide greater convenience and security to users of distributed ledger technology. It allows users to manage their digital identities securely while businesses and financial institutions are able to manage customer data in a reliable and easy manner.
8. Squirro – Big Data / Data Visualisation – Squirro is a data insights solution developer based in Zurich. Squirro works with global data-driven organisations and provides solutions in risk, service, and customer insights.
9. Xnotes Alliance – Blockchain – XNotes Alliance provides business-driven, currency-agnostic and energy-efficient enterprise class blockchain-based solutions. It provides users with full accessibility control across the transaction process, empowering them to run more efficiently and securely.
