Nine leading financial technology (fintech) companies have been selected for the sixth annual FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, a 12-week mentorship program created by Accenture.
This year’s program set a record for applications, with submissions from more than 170 companies.
Leveraging AI, RegTech, blockchain and other technologies, the nine selected startups have developed innovations addressing financial education and planning, corporate banking and other key areas. The solutions are designed to help financial institutions address a variety of challenges, from keeping up with compliance requirements and analyzing large volumes of structured and unstructured data to building more-personalised customer products and services.
Five of the nine startups selected are from Hong Kong and one is from Shenzhen, a sign of the growing importance of the so-called Greater Bay Area in southern China as a mecca for technology and finance.
“Leading Chinese companies, start-ups and more established institutions are exploring new ideas and spurring continuous innovation to stay ahead of the game, which is building a more robust fintech ecosystem in the Greater Bay Area,” said Piyush Singh, a senior managing director in Accenture’s Financial Services practice in Asia-Pacific and Africa and regional program sponsor for the Lab.
“The region can serve as a significant catalyst for growth and innovation going forward.”
The FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is a collaboration between Accenture and leading financial institutions. The principal financial institutions for the 2019 Lab are: Bank of America Merrill Lynch; BlackRock; Credit Suisse; Goldman Sachs; J.P. Morgan; Macquarie Group; Morgan Stanley; Societe Generale; Standard Chartered; Sun Life; and Zurich Insurance Company.
The Lab culminates in November with selected participants presenting at Demo Day in front of an audience of venture capitalists and financial industry executives.
Launched in Hong Kong in June 2014, the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific has received nearly 800 applications since its inception, with 41 companies participating to date. Alumni companies from the Lab have raised US$520 million after participating in the program.
The FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is modelled on similar programs that Accenture co-founded in New York and London in 2010 and 2012, respectively. Globally, the Labs’ alumni companies have raised a total of about US$1.9 billion in venture financing after participating in the program.
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