
Advancing Trade Finance and Hong Kong’s Fintech Ecosystem: Q&A with FundPark CEO Anson Suen
This week we are very excited to catch up with Anson Suen, the CEO of FundPark, a leading Hong Kong trade finance platform that is empowering SMEs in Asia. They were one of three finalists for Jumpstarter 2017 FinTech Pitch organised by Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund. Looking forward to welcoming the FundPark team to the SuperCharger program! Q: Walk me through the journey of FundPark. What inspired you to start FundPark? While working at an international bank, I noticed that SME

Interview with Shameek Kundu, Chief Data Officer at Standard Chartered Bank
During RiseConf in Hong Kong in July, we interviewed a number of thought leaders in FinTech, among whom Mr. Shameek Kundu, Chief Data Officer, Standard Chartered Bank. Read his insights below: Q: What are the roles of humans in an age of technological change, where technology is nearly universally-present? A: Ultimately, technology is here to serve humans - how can we do things more simply, more intuitively, and provide greater convenience. I believe technology can only work

Cashless Challenge in Hong Kong : How Hong Kong is falling behind?
Hong Kong has been accused of falling behind in transforming to a cashless society. Despite the infrastructure and payment tools availability (i.e. the famous octopus card), network effect is always an important factor for a technology to go viral. Instead of complaining on Hong Kong falling behind, I challenge myself to go cashless as an experience and advocacy. My rule is simple, which is avoid using any form of cash for one month. To complete this challenge, I need payment

Hong Kong’s FinTech Future in 5 Minutes
The Hong Kong Financial Services Development Council (HK FSDC) just released a 69 page report entitled “The Future of FinTech in Hong Kong.” This blog post acts as a summary of the key points and action items it proposed. The main thesis of the paper is that Hong Kong’s government should take a more proactive approach on FinTech if they want to compete with other rival FinTech centres in the region and the world that are already moving rapidly ahead with FinTech initiatives.

SuperCharger Startup Highlight: Interview with Kris Marszalek, Founder and CEO of Foris
Kris Marszalek is the CEO of Foris, Southeast Asia’s universal money app. Foris is one of the 8 companies admitted to the SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator 2.0. Don’t miss SuperCharger’s Demo Dayon 11 April, 2017 at HKEX, where the companies in our cohort will showcase their cutting-edge demos. We sat down with Kris to learn more about Foris and why it is well placed to win in Southeast Asia. As Foris is not Kris’ first venture, we also asked him to share his tips and advice t

SuperCharger Startup Highlight: Interview with Ned Phillips, Founder and CEO of Bambu
I sat down with Ned Phillips, Founder and CEO of Bambu, to interview him as a part of our Startup Highlight Series for the 2017 SuperCharger 2.0 cohort. Ned has been based in Asia for the past 25 years, and has been working in FinTech since 1999. Q: Tell us a little about Bambu. Bambu is a B2B robo-advisory solution partner offering digital wealth services to banks looking to provide their end users a financial tool to save and invest their money. We target financial institut

The FinTech World is Looking East
The trend has been confirmed — Asia is the leading region in the world, as measured by FinTech investment. Globally VC-backed FinTech funding (down 13% to $12.7BN) and deals (down 1% to 836) are on the downturn. Asia is the only part of the world where FinTech investment is increasing. Last year, the top 10 Asia-based FinTech deals were worth in aggregate around $4BN. 2016 Asia mega-round deals ($50MN+) were dominated by Chinese firms. Ant Financial raised $4.5BN in private p