Abu Dhabi Global Market, KPMG select 11 finalists for fintech challenge

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and professional services firm KPMG have announced the 11 finalists for the FinTech Abu Dhabi Innovation Challenge.

The firms were selected from 166 applicants and began a five-week programme that began on Sunday as they prepare to present their solutions to the market at a demo day on October 22.

Read: Abu Dhabi Global Market receives 166 applications for fintech challenge

Each of the finalists is focussed on one of six areas including financial and investment management, financial inclusion, regtech, trade finance, insurtech and private capital markets.

During the programme they will be mentored by 14 fintech and financial industry leaders for training on business incorporation, regulatory requirements, funding and partnerships and opportunities to expand in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Two winners will be selected and invited to demonstrate their solutions at the Global FinTech Hackcelerator in Singapore.

All the winners will also be fast-tracked for consideration for ADGM’s Regulatory Laboratory programme.

The finalists

The finalists were selected by a panel of judges including global fintech commentator Elizabeth Lumley, executive director of capital markets at ADGM’s financial services regulatory authority Wai Lum Kwok, KPMG Digital Village head Jan Reinmueller and KPMG partner for the financial sector in the UAE Umair Hameed.

The judges based their decisions on the uniqueness of the solution, relevance to the problem statements, business potential and scalability of the solution, maturity of the solution and the demonstration of the start-up’s ability to execute.

The finalists are:

• NewBridge FinTech (Fundshop) (UAE
  A UAE-based digital wealth solution provider to private banks, wealth management and asset management companies.
• Alpha FinTech (Singapore)
  A fintech vendor enablement and management platform.
• Everledger (UK)
  A solution that shifts the burden of the paper process onto a digital global ledger that is immutable, secure, scalable and fast.
• FRS Labs (India)
  A digital solution that allows customers to open bank accounts from the comfort of their homes.
• ftcash (India)
  A digital payments and loans solution provider for SMEs that requires only a bank account and a feature phone.
• Market IQ (Canada)
  An app that helps users manage their financial life easily and effectively.
• Canopy (Singapore)
  A platform that allows all assets to be anonymously aggregated and viewed as a single portfolio, run portfolio analytics, and generate custom reports.
• Silent Eight (Singapore)
  A solution that reviews all available data at lightning speed and provides analysts with useful, relevant information with each alert.
• Privé Financial Limited (Hong Kong)
  A data-as-a-service and software-as-a-service combined solution for financial advisors.
• PIVOT (China)
  An investment management solution with a focus on AI and machine learning to produce results.
• SQREEM (Singapore)
  A tech company in the field of artificial Intelligence with a software technology stack and series of cognitive AI algorithms that allow users to understand and predict all aspects of human behaviour.

“We are delighted with the high calibre of entrants that we have received from some of the most promising FinTech practitioners in the industry,” said Kwok.

“This is the first time that a challenge like this has been delivered in the region and we would like to thank each and every one of the applicants for their time in putting forward such market-ready solutions.”

Abu Dhabi is among a group of regional cities vying to become the Gulf’s fintech hub.

Both Bahrain and Dubai have announced new regulation this year designed to allow fintech firms greater flexibility in testing and experimenting with new ideas.

Read: Bahrain says UK’s Tramonex, Dubai’s NOW Money sign up to fintech sandbox

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) also launched an accelerator programme for financial technology start-ups in collaboration with Accenture in January.

The first 11 finalists for the 12-week programme were selected last month.

Read: Dubai FinTech Hive accelerator selects first 11 finalists