Singapore Fintech Festival, the world's largest Fintech event just ended yesterday (17/11/2017) with the highlights of 3 winners in the Global Fintech Hackcelerator comptetion (more about this later). I am privileged enough to attend the Thursday (16th Nov 2017) session as trade delegate. So, before I forget, thought to document my experience here.
The event hall is huge (covering 3 Expo halls) with 281 exhibitors from all over the world. Ranging from big financial institutions to tech companies and of course the startups. On top of that, there are on-going panel discussion, keynotes and demos (at Sandbox stage) If you are into Fintech and Startups, I am sure you can spend pretty much the whole day here.
The morning session (on 16th Nov 2017) comprises of a speech by Her Majesty Queen Maxima (Netherland) on "A Better Future (Inclusion Technology)" followed by the Keynote on "Financial Services For The Poor" by Michael Wiegand (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). The theme is to take care of those unbanked citizens in the poor countries like Kenya etc.
After which, 20 startup finalists pitch their ideas in the Global Hackcelerator Demo session (each team only has 5 minutes to pitch). There are a couple of wow ideas but not all.
After which, 20 startup finalists pitch their ideas in the Global Hackcelerator Demo session (each team only has 5 minutes to pitch). There are a couple of wow ideas but not all.
3 winners of the Global Hackcelerator are: Moxtra (India), SQREEM (US) and Trunomi (Singaproe). Each team walk away with cash prize of SGD50,000.
In the afternoon, it's more like free and easy for the attendees to choose their preferred panel discussions between the AMTD, Delloitte and Prudential Stages. For me, I've attending the following panel discussions:
1. Insurtech I - Protection Disruption (Panelists: Dr Andrea Braun [Accenture Technology], Parul Seth Kanna [Pinbox Solution] and Benoit Claveranne [AXA Group]). Prior to this, there is a Keynote by Group Head of DBS, Ms Tan Su Shan on their "Road To Digitization" which is equally interesting. Looks like all big financial institutions are working hard to inculcate the startups mindset in their culture.
2. Insurtech II - Insuring The Future (Panelists: Al-Noor Ramji [Prudential], Julie Batch [IAG] and Willaim Fung [AMTD]).
Following which, I've roamed around the halls and pay visit to the exhibitors that caught my eyes. Some of the interesting ones are as follows:
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| Interesting Crypto Wallet solution (from Singapore) |
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| Project Ubin (MAS) - We are at Phase 2 now with 3 prototyping |
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| Nem.io - Personally think that Smart Contract will have a brilliantly bright potential |
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| ICO in the Healthcare front? |
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| Ethereum on steroid? |
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| Read this ICO before attending the event, surprise to see them there |
Overall, I have a great learning and mind-opening experience at Fintech Festival. With national effort to make Singapore a Smart Nation, we need more of such events to expose the general public (not only trade delegate) with the new and upcoming xxxTech (not only FinTech).
Cheers!
Note: This article was first published in Blockchain SG (my other blog side-project)
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