A Dubai-based peer-to-peer lender and a British biometric payments firm are among the 24 start-ups to vie in Hong Kong for a cash injection.
Twenty-four start-ups from Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Japan, the U.S., Britain, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Israel, and Brazil are set to face off in January at Hong Kong's StartmeupHK Festival. The event is a government-subsidized effort to promote emerging financial technologies and attract them to Hong Kong.
The program is supported by credit card firm Visa and Senjō Group, a payments operator and fintech investor. The start-ups, which include Dubai's Beehive and Britain's Fingopay, have four minutes to present themselves, with the winner taking an $10,000 cash prize and a visit to Visa's innovation center in Singapore.
The finalists competing are: China's Xencio; Norwegian Ablepay; Identitii, Checkbox, and Tradeledger from Australia; Singapore's AgUnity, Jumper, Baasis, PortFolioQuest, Bluzelle, and Scalend; Hong Kong's Lattice Limited, BluePool, SearchInk, and Chekk; from Dubai, Beehive and Sales Arm; U.S. based-NoPassword; Caulis of Japan; Fingopay and Future Flow of the U.K.; Malaysia's Fundaztic; Brazil's Smarttbot; and Sherlock Garden of Israel.
