Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) today (December 21) announced the soft launch of the FintechHK Community Platform, a centralised fintech platform to connect local and global fintech companies with Corporate, Investor, and Service Champions to foster vibrant growth of Hong Kong's fintech ecosystem. Fully supported by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and curated by InvestHK, the initiative comes as an extension of the Global Fast Track Programme, which garnered great industry participation in 2022.
 
Fast-tracking business connectivity
 
     The FintechHK Community Platform aims to encourage local enterprises to expand their business to the Mainland, Southeast Asia, and other regions. Through the platform, fintech and champion users are able to explore and engage with one another. Fintech companies can feature their company profile, value proposition, innovative solutions, fund-raising needs, and other details to platform users, helping to expand their exposure and reach across fintech communities in Asia and other regions. On the other hand, corporates and investors can identify fintech solution providers and investment opportunities more easily, while service providers specialised in the fintech industry can also share their insights and latest capabilities to generate business opportunities with champions and fintechs that require expert support.
 
     The Head of Fintech at InvestHK, Mr King Leung, said, "We are very pleased to see the encouraging feedback from our partners and fintech companies from the pilot of the FintechHK Community Platform. But this is only the beginning for the development of the platform. With the forces of accelerating fintech adoption among corporates and macroeconomic headwinds, now is a critical time, especially for fintech companies, to raise market visibility. We encourage everyone to join this platform and utilise it actively to realise opportunities and accelerate growth."
 
     The next release is currently under development. It will include an enhanced interface and functions such as inter-user communications, competitions, and community event hosting. The next version targets to be ready in Q2 2023 to support initiatives for connecting potential business deals and funding opportunities such as the Global Fast Track 2023.
 
     The platform has already onboarded over 300 fintech organisations with more to follow. To learn more about the FintechHK Community Platform, please visit its official website at the link here.
 
Highlights of Global Fast Track 2022
 
     This year, the Global Fast Track Programme received over 400 fintech applications from across 45 global economies, and support from over 100 champions across three categories - Corporate, Investor, and the newly added Service category. As of mid-December, the programme has already facilitated over 175 one-to-one business meetings among participating fintech companies and champions, helping them to explore business opportunities and potential growth within the market and beyond.
 
     Following a highly competitive judging process, only one finalist from each vertical, together with two wildcards nominated by the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) Accelerator 2022 from the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), progressed to the Final Pitching Competition which took place live at the main conference of Hong Kong FinTech Week on October 31, 2022.
 
     BaseBit.ai, a privacy computing start-up that has built an open data ecosystem and a data sharing collaborative environment based on data security and personal privacy protection, bested the nine other finalists to win the Global Fast Track Final Pitching Competition this year with its outstanding performance in the final.
 
     On top of the original eight verticals - including Commercial Banking, Digital Assets, ESG, InsurTech, InvestTech & WealthTech, Payments, RegTech, and Retail Banking - the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) track, launched in partnership with InvestHK and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), was introduced into the Programme for the first time this year. The CBDC track was well received by the market with over 80 applications. Shortlisted applicants had the opportunity to participate in the final pitching competition organised by the HKMA. All qualified candidates may also have the opportunity to work with the HKMA on research projects and pilots to foster the future growth of the CBDC ecosystem.
 
The CBDC track's awardees were:
 

• Best Technology Award: ARTA TechFin and Giesecke+Devrient a52 GmbH (G+D Filia)
• Best Use-case Award: Hang Seng Bank and Bank of China (Hong Kong)
• Best Ecosystem Award: HSBC and VISA

     The Associated Director-General of InvestHK, Mr Charles Ng, said, "The success of Global Fast Track shows that Hong Kong is a highly attractive hub for fintech firms to connect with potential corporate clients and investors, and to flourish. On behalf of InvestHK, I would like to thank all participants and champions for their dedication and support. Congratulations again to all our winners and a special thank you to our Service Champions - DFIN, King & Wood Mallesons, Meta, Montieth SPRG, Osome, QReg Advisory, and SS&C Intralinks - for sponsoring the complimentary services provided to the final winner in support of its business growth."
 
     Replays of the Final Pitching Competition can be watched at the link here.
 
About InvestHK

     InvestHK is the department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government responsible for attracting foreign direct investment. It has set up a dedicated fintech team in Hong Kong to attract the world's top innovative fintech enterprises, start-up entrepreneurs, investors, and other stakeholders to set up and scale their business via Hong Kong into Mainland China, Asia and beyond. For more information, please visit www.hongkong-fintech.hk.

Ends/Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Issued at HKT 11:00

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