The Monetary Authority of Singapore has officially announced the 20 finalists to join the annual Global FinTech Hackcelerator competition and FinTech Awards. These various startups from around the world were nominated in four categories: Customer-Facing, Financial Inclusion, RegTech and General.
The competition is part of the Fintech Festival, an annual financial startups events sponsored by MAS. Nominees will undergo a 12-week programme and present their ideas before a panel of judges at the festival. After the gruelling months of the competition, 10 winners will be announced on 16 November at Singapore Expo.
Here are the top 20 finalists to compete at this year's Global Hackcelerator contest in Singapore:
1. Ernit, a company from Denmark that produces the world's first smart piggy bank, which is connected to a real bank account.
2. Moxtra, a company from India that brings a mobile, embeddable collaboration platform.
3. Paykey, a company from Israel that embeds a payment button into the keyboard.
4. Smartfolios, a company from Singapore that houses brokers, wealth managers, banks and financial advisors in one platform.
5. Snapcheck, a social payment company from the US that enables a click-and-send payment system for people to write and send digital cheques.
6. AID:Tech, a blockchain-based company from the UK that releases digital identities conveniently.
7. Alternative Circle, a micro-lending mobile app company from Kenya that delivers loan.
8. ConfirmU, an alternative credit scoring company from Israel that helps people with no financial history to build a credit history using big data analytics.
9. Ftcash, a mobile payments company from India.
10. MyCash Online, an online marketplace app company from Malaysia for unbanked migrants in Asia.
11. Apiax, a company from Switzerland that converts fluid regulatory environment into easy-to-follow rules.
12. Dathena Science, an artificial intelligence-based government platform from Singapore that detects security threats and safeguards sensitive information.
13. Solus Connect, a security company from Malaysia that provides up to multi-factor authentication solutions for businesses.
14. Trunomi, a company from the US that provides customer consent and personal rights management tools.
15. VoxSmart, a company from the UK that protects companies from fraud through mobile communications.
16. Kyckr, a company from Ireland for automating 'know-your-customer' checks.
17. Lingua Custodia, a translation company from France.
18. Privé Services, a wealth and asset management company from Hong Kong.
19. Roameeo, a motor insurance company from Australia.
20. SQREEM, an artificial intelligence company from Singapore.
