Abu Dhabi unveils fintech Innovation Challenge finalists

Clutch of business models selected for October judging showcase includes some powerful applications for business community

Major Middle East financial hub Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has revealed which firms will compete in the final of its first-ever Innovation Challenge contest.

An effort to identify leading-edge concepts emerging from the global fintech sector, the competition garnered an initial 166 applicants from all over the world.

They were whittled down to a shortlist of just 11 – some of which have interesting applications for the non-financial business community.

Contenders of that type include:

• UK firm Everledger – a platform that harnesses blockchain and smart contracts to shift the burden of paper processes onto a secure, global and scalable digital ledger designed to mitigate risk and fraud, adaptable across industry sectors.
• India’s ftcash – an aggregator that aims to empower small-business owners with the power to make digital payments and loans via a single bank account and smartphone. The service groups a wide range of payment methods (such as credit and debit cards, online banking, mobile wallets, UPI, BharatQR and PayPal) into an open platform, enabling merchants to trigger fast transactions and provide institutional capital in less than five minutes.
• Singapore’s Alpha FinTech – a vendor-enablement and management platform that, through a simple API and user interface, enables banks, payment gateways and merchants to access new and legacy vendors across the entire payment, risk and commerce spectrum.

The 11 finalists will now refine their concepts and models with the help of industry experts, in the run-up to a special Demo Day before judges in late October.

Two winners will go on to demonstrate their ventures at Singapore’s Global FinTech Hackcelerator in November.

Wai Lum Kwok – executive director of capital markets at ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority – said: “We are delighted with the high calibre of entrants that we have received from some of the most promising fintech practitioners in the industry.

“What firmly stood out was the remarkable quality of solutions presented. The panel of expert judges had a very tough time selecting the finalists from the 166 applicants.”

Kwok noted: “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.”

He added: “The whole process so far has shone a light on the immense talent that exists in the global fintech community.

“Now we look forward to harnessing and nurturing this outstanding talent even further and identify those game-changing concepts that will help revolutionise the financial services industry today to help build the knowledge-based economy of tomorrow.”