5 in 5 minutes - April 14th

Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition 2017 opens for registration    

Powered by the Hong Kong New Generation Culture Association and HKSTP, the Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition 2017 is opened for registration from now until 25th April 2017.  

The Competition welcomes all full-time diploma, higher diploma, associate's, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree students. All categories carry a monetary award over HKD$300,000 in total. Top winners will represent Hong Kong and their institutes in the "Challenge Cup" National Competition in Shanghai.

Founded in 1974, the Hong Kong New Generation Cultural Association (HKNGCA) is a government-recognized charitable organization. With the motto, “Vision, Innovation, Erudition and Responsibility”. With the aim to nurture innovative ideas and entrepreneurial skills among university students,  the association organized the “Challenge Cup” National Competition- Hong Kong Regional Final.

KKday expands to Vietnam

Shortly after its announcement on the expansion to Thailand, the Taiwan-headquartered travel tech startup KKday announces its expansion to Vietnam.

According to an article from e27, KKday is expanding to Vietnam, taking advantage of the loose visa processing requirements in Taiwan with the aim of boosting tourism between Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries. The Taiwanese government passed a visa amendment that allows citizens from developed countries such as Korea and Japan would no longer require a visa to enter Taiwan. The policy relaxation results in an increasing number of Vietnamese visitors outbound to Taiwan. The startup decided to choose Vietnam as a part of the expansion plan. From January 2016 to March 2017, Vietnamese accounted for 10 percent of KKday's total fans number on Facebook.

SuperCharger 2.0: 5 contracts signed between its start-ups and corporate partners

SuperCharger 2.0 Demo Day gathered over 500 attendees, learning more about the progress made by the eight companies in the 2017 cohort at SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator 2.0.

5 contracts were signed between SuperCharger startups and its corporate partners. Standard Chartered will work with Singapore's Bambu and Hong Kong's KYC Chain for a proof of concept (PoC) projects.

On the other hand, SuperCharger claims that the 2.0 cohort has raised USD 600K while the SuperCharger 1.0 alumni raised USD 80 million since last year's Demo Day.

Hong Kong attracts US$400M of venture capital investment from FinTech firms

According to Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Prof KC Chan, Hong Kong has attracted around US$400 million of venture capital investment in FinTech companies during 2014 to 2016. 

Going forward, the Hong Kong government will focus on enhancing the local payment service ecology, The HKMA is also planning to introduce Faster Payment System in 2018 and facilitate the development of new payment channels for government services.

Global FinTech Innovation Forum of Internet Economy Summit gathers insights and trends for FinTech

The Global FinTech Innovation Forum gathers more than 1000 industry executives from the finance and technology sector to learn and share latest trends and knowledge on FinTech.

Cyberport FinTech startups shared insights on solving pain points, attracting talent and expanding into APAC market during the panel discussion. Startups also highlighted that collaboration between banks and startups on data analytics, blockchain technologies and augment customer service will help deliver more efficient services.