Accenture has opened applications for the annual FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, a 10-week programme that helps early- and growth-stage FinTech companies accelerate product and business development through a mentorship programme with executives from top financial institutions in Hong Kong.
Start-ups can apply at https://www.fintechinnovationlab.com/asia-pacific/ from June 1 through July 10.
This year’s Lab is seeking companies in five major areas: Data & Analytics; Digital Banking; Health Insurance Ecosystem; Intelligent Automation and Emerging Technologies.
Data & Analytics – Financial Institutions store large amounts of customer data on their legacy technology systems, which aren’t optimized for today’s digital economy and restrict their ability to get value out of the data. FinTechs in this area help analyse and extract value from customer data with lead generation, cross/up selling, better and more personalised services/experiences, as well as improve fraud detection, regulatory compliance and risk management.
Digital Banking – Regulators around the world are looking to spur and instigate digital banking transformation, improve customer service and local market competition with new virtual banking licenses and by opening up to neobanks. FinTechs in this area help traditional banks as well as the virtual newcomers provide more customer-centric experiences and differentiated services with open application programming interfaces (APIs), core banking solutions, account aggregation and digital onboarding.
Health Insurance Ecosystem – Ecosystem platforms are a key factor in the digital transformation of health insurers, helping to drive value, consumer engagement and loyalty. Start-ups in this area provide solutions to help insurers improve their end-to-end customer experience, link up with various ecosystem parties, including lifestyle and wellness service providers.
Intelligent Automation – More and more banks and insurance companies are looking to revamp their end-to-end legacy processes and systems with automated tools and services to improve customer experience, reduce human error and increase efficiency and productivity, adding cognitive capabilities to enhance those solutions with multi-language capabilities. Start-ups in this area offer robotic process automation (RPA) solutions, natural language processing tools and virtual agents, among other intelligent automation solutions.
Emerging Technologies – FinTechs in this area offer technologies and solutions that are applicable across multiple financial services, including but not limited to chatbots, artificial intelligence, and blockchain.
The Lab, which begins Oct. 5, will select a maximum of 10 applicants and partner the chosen FinTechs with senior-level financial institution executives and leading technology entrepreneurs to help start-ups fine-tune and develop their technologies and business strategies. Alumni companies from the Lab have raised US$525 million to date after participating in the programme.
The principal financial institutions for the Lab in 2020 are: Bank of America; China Construction Bank (Asia); Credit Suisse; J.P. Morgan; Macquarie; Morgan Stanley; Societe Generale; SC Ventures by Standard Chartered; SunLife Financial; and Zurich Insurance. In addition, supporting financial institutions are: AIA International Limited; BlackRock; Dah Sing Bank, Limited; Generali; ICBC (Asia); Maybank; Natixis; Saxo Markets; and ZhongAn International. Cyberport, which is one of the founding organizations of the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, will provide workspace to the participating start-ups.
The FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is modelled on a similar programme that Accenture co-founded in 2010 with the Partnership Fund for New York City, the US$150 million investment arm of the Partnership for New York City. In 2012, Accenture and a dozen major banks in London launched the FinTech Innovation Lab London, with support from the city’s mayor and other government bodies. In 2014, Accenture launched the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong. Globally, the Labs’ alumni companies have raised about US$2 billion in venture financing after participating in the programme.