KPMG Digital Village, the team powering the 2017 Global Fintech Hackcelerator, envisions more corporates partnering and adopting innovative fintech solutions.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore recently announced the 20 finalists for the 2017 Global Fintech Hackcelerator, which is powered by KPMG Digital Village.
A panel of industry judges went through a total of 580 submissions from over 40 countries, and shortlisted the 20 finalists based on product relevance to the problem statement, uniqueness of product, revenue and growth strategy, and scalability to other markets or customer segments.
Of the 309 applications in Asia, 162 entries came from Singapore-based teams, making Singapore the country with the biggest number of applicants. India and Nigeria followed, with 61 and 44 applications respectively.
Corporate Adoption
What makes the Global Fintech Hackcelerator stand out from other startup accelerators is that it focuses on post-hackcelerator commercialisation of fintech solutions. As a consequence, it has attracted strong participation from mid to mature fintech startups who have completed the prototyping phase and are either in the pilot, production or implementation phase.
These startups are now undergoing the 12-week programme with KPMG Digital Village and industry mentors to contextualise and refine their solutions for Demo Day.
«The Global Fintech Hackcelerator is meant to be a corporate accelerator. We want to help corporates shift from a position where they are disrupted to one where they are the disruptor, through the adoption of innovative startup solutions. With such an approach, it’s a win-win for all, especially when it solves problems at an industry level,» said Jan Reinmueller, head of Digital Village at KPMG in Singapore.
In addition to the corporate or industry mentor assigned to each team, finalists will participate in themed sessions, innovation lab visits and networking events to help them build their expertise and plug into the fintech ecosystem in Singapore, as well as assess opportunities for growth and expansion into Asia.
Fintech’s Technology of Choice
A review of the underlying technologies used by the applicants revealed that robo-advisors, machine learning, blockchain and artificial intelligence were used most extensively.
Of the 580 applications, 32 percent of them addressed problem statements around the area of Customer-Facing Solutions, followed by Financial Inclusion (30 percent) and RegTech (17 percent), with the balance 21 percent in the general category.
Demo Day, 16 November
The Global Fintech Hackcelerator Demo Day will be held on 16 November 2017, and winners will be announced at the MAS Fintech Awards on the same night.
Post-Hackcelerator, winners can look forward to working with industry champions and applying their solutions to real-life business challenges identified by the Financial Services industry.
