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Over 300 companies applied and the winners come from a diverse set of industries and sectors
UOB kicked off its inaugural The FinLab accelerator programme last week with nine companies participating in a three month programme focussed on the financial sector.
With over 300 participants from over 20 countries applying for the programme, e27 wrote up short profiles on the companies that made the cut.
Felix Tan, the Managing Director of FinLab, said the chosen companies cross the entire fintech spectrum because, “there is strength in diversity.”
He also said that a larger group of mentors work with companies on their specific goals and potential investors can, “identify, from a broader spectrum of startups, and once done, they can start engagement over the course of our programme instead of meeting them for the first time on Demo Day.”
UOB’s FinLab is a joint venture project with Singapore’s Infocomm Investments Private Limited — a wholly owned investment arm of the government’s Infocomm Development Authority.
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Let’s meet the companies!
Attores
Co-founded by a relatively well-known name in Singapore’s blockchain circle, David Moskowitz, Attores is building smart contracts for the industry. Smart contracts are computer protocols that enforce the terms or performances of a given financial agreement.
The goal is to help make adoption easier and faster by improving the end-user experience.
CardUp
Cardup is allowing users to use their credit card to make large financial purchases that previously required bank transfers or money deposits (the company uses rent payment as an example). Essentially, the company charges a fee to make the payment via bank transfer.
One perk the company advertises using the service as a way to rack up serious reward points that may have taken eons to accomplish through smaller daily transactions.
FinMitra
FinMitra is, in a word, a goal calculator and wants to be the go-to source for a client’s financial decisions and actions. On the website the startup uses the example of parents planning for their child’s graduation from a foreign university.
Users input the timeframe, the desired goal and are given customised investment advice according to personality type (high risk vs. conservative investor).
FinReg Technology
The startup provides a solution for banks to adhere to compliance requirements when they are recording messages on WhatsApp and WeChat, as they are obligated to do so in the US and Europe. The company is working towards a first-mover advantage for when the same rules are applied throughout Asia.
Nickel
Nickel has developed a proof-of-concept mobile technology using the blockchain to help migrant workers send remittances to their family. Using the mobile app, Nickel is working to build a system to help the region’s SMEs facilitate foreign exchange payments efficiently and at a low FX rate.
The company previously participated in DBS’ Hotspot Accelerator that started in December.
SsinoConnect Technology
A P2P lending platform with the goal of providing smaller down payments for potential car owners. It will have a recovery and repossession system in place and the first focus will be the Indonesian market.
Stock2Day
Stock2Day wants to socialise and gamify the stock exchange for the mom-and-pop investor. It advertises its voting trends system and effective learning service via its Recommender System. The idea is to avoid risks and educate the average person on stock market investments.
The company is also developing a ‘Supervised Deep Learning’ algorithm that will analyse user behavior to recognise patterns and provide useful/accurate actionable predictions.
Tuple Technologies
The Big Data and Analytics consulting company targets medium-sized companies facing challenges in leveraging data to gain an advantage in the business world.
Also Read: UOB and Temasek to offer up to US$500M in venture debt financing
Consultants work with emerging companies in the telecom, e-business, securities, financial, pharmaceutical, systems development, manufacturing and transportation industries.
TurnKey Lender
The company has built a cloud system for borrower evaluation aimed at non-bank lenders. It helps lenders with a credit scoring system, an all-in-one platform and uses automation to filter out the unnecessary or risky propositions.
All the offerings are web-based and can be localised easily. Plus TurnKey Lender is built with rules that can be easily fixed to a dynamic market. The company is pitching the growing popularity of non-bank lending in Asia as reason to be optimistic about future adoption rate.
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