How to build and scale up a fintech start up? Insightful knowledge shared in HKU Business School x IFTA Masterclass
The webinar on How to build and scale up fintech projects & startups in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, co-hosted by HKU Business School and Institute of Financial Technologists of Asia (IFTA), was successfully held on June 16, with more than 100 participants joining us on such a fruitful evening.
In the opening remarks, Mr. Joseph Chan, Associate Director of the Centre of Asian Entrepreneurship and Business Values of HKU Business School, laid out the School’s vision to become a catalyst in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Community in Hong Kong, China and overseas. He highlighted the exciting news about the opening of the School’s Beijing Centre and the Shenzhen Centre, which aims to better support the entrepreneurs to explore the market outside Hong Kong and to build the community with the change makers. This interactive webinar co-organised with IFTA is a good example to demonstrate the School’s dedication to contributing to the fintech and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Hong Kong with an aim towards aspiring fintech innovation and unleashing fintech companies’ potential.
Our honourable guests from IFTA shared with us their experience, insight and tips about fintech startups and scale-up in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area (GBA). While many believe that opening a startup is a privilege to young people with minimal liabilities, Mr. Benjamin Wong, Co-Founder & CEO of TranSwap, proved that those with rich work experience can excel on the path of entrepreneurship. “An entrepreneur must be resolute, resourceful, and resilient, as there is no standard operating procedure to follow when you are pushing at the frontiers of unknown territory,” said Mr. Wong. He believed that locals with the aspiration to disrupt and make the change, should take a leap of faith and run a startup. It is never too late to start a business.
Mr. Albert Yip, Chairman of Syndicate Capital, posited that funders look for scalable startups that can achieve sustainable market leadership and growth to invest in. “For a startup to scale up, strong cash flow, a workable IT system, and an all-rounded team are the prerequisites. A scalable startup must also keep on redefining its business model, seeking new funders, and conducting research and development to catch up with the global trends,” said Mr. Yip.
He recommended the startup companies expand into the GBA market and play a birding role in co-creating an ecosystem conducive to business. While most local startups have concerns over the institutional differences between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, Mr. Yip believed that local fintech entrepreneurs can find strategic partners, community builders and professional bodies to cover their shortcomings, and leverage the GBA talents for applications development. Mr. Benjamin Wong also agreed that no one can ignore the rise of China and the big GBA market, in the course of building a good ecosystem for startups in Singapore.
When the Chinese government is actively promoting the idea of E-RMB and e-payment technologies, Mr. Yip advocated that Hong Kong should strive to be a research hub on blockchain and digital currency, as well as start cultivating a talent pool together with talents from both the GBA and overseas countries. By doing so, Hong Kong can be the perfect testing ground to test run E-RMB or even E-HKD, further enriching our fintech ecosystem.
Yet, while digital currency could solve the liquidity issue in cross-border trade, making transactions almost instant, Mr. Wong agreed that there is a long road of cross-country compliance issues to be resolved and a complex regulatory regime to be made for digital currency to go mainstream in international trades. However, he was still very positive about the future and believed that the development of machine learning and 5G would greatly speed up innovation, logistics, and lead to more breakthroughs.
At the end of the webinar, Dr. Kin Hang Chan, Associate Director of Centre for Asian Entrepreneurship and Business Values of HKU Business School and an academic award winner in artificial intelligence (AI) research, concluded that entrepreneurship is about evaluating, finding opportunities, and turning them into marketable products and services. All speakers looked forward that local startups can continue to look out for opportunities in the GBA and thrive. The key to success is to have a functional business model and an ecosystem that can facilitate fundraising.
