The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has unveiled the finalists for the 2024 Global Fintech Hackcelerator.
The winners of the competition will be announced on 7 November 2024 during the SFF Fintech Excellence Awards.
The 2024 Hackcelerator, themed “Improving Financial Health,” aims to foster solutions that help individuals and businesses manage their finances more effectively.
The Global Fintech Hackcelerator, organised by MAS in partnership with Elevandi, received 77 proposals worldwide this year.
The 18 finalists have been selected based on solutions to challenges in credit access, financial literacy, cross-border payments, and personalized protection, among other areas.
The shortlisted teams, comprising fintech firms and solution providers from regions including Australia, India, the United States, and Kenya, have presented proposals utilising technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to enhance financial well-being and resilience in today’s evolving economic landscape.
Finalists will participate in a two-day programme organised by Elevandi, where they will work closely with corporate mentors, engage with investors, and refine their pitches.
Each finalist receives a S$20,000 stipend, and the top three winners will each secure an additional S$50,000 prize.
These teams will present their solutions at the Demo Day held on 6 November 2024 at the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF).
Here Are the 18 Finalists for Global Fintech Hackcelerator 2024
1. Mitt Arv (India)
Envisioning a future where no one is left in financial or emotional chaos on the passing of a loved one, Mitt Arv is a startup that provides a platform for their clients to plan and build their legacy with their loved ones.
With their product, Asset Vault, users will be able to list assets’ information and share it with their loved ones, at a time of their choice.
By combining technology, strategic collaborations and a focus on inclusivity, Mitt Arv plans to make legacy planning hassle-free and addressing both financial and emotional legacies for a wide range of users.
2. Wimika RMS Technologies Ltd (Nigeria)
The Wimika team is composed of seasoned professionals with diverse, yet complementary, expertise covering cybersecurity, software engineering, product management, insurance, fintech, digital fraud prevention, risk management, legal and leadership.
The collective strength of the team gives them a significant advantage in achieving their business objectives, fulfilling customer commitments and delivering on financial projections.
Wimika’s solution, MoneyGuard, is a cyber fraud insurance solution that offers individual bank customers rapid reimbursement of lost funds within seven days.
Powered by advanced fraud detection and seamless integration with financial institutions, it provides peace of mind and financial security against financial cyber fraud.
3. Vitto (India)
Vitto is a MSME focused fintech startup using behavioural data for credit risk profiling and automating credit decisioning with AI assistance.
The Vitto app improves financial health by helping users manage their personal finance through automated expense tracking, personalised budgeting, and financial insights.
4. Heymax.AI (Singapore)
Heymax.ai operates Max Miles, Singapore’s newest multi-merchant loyalty programme.
Founded in 2023, Heymax has captured a significant base of over 120,000 frequent travellers who use it to optimise their spending and earn free travel.
Heymax.ai offers consumers a suite of tools to make better financial decisions, including card spend tracking and recommendations, merchant code lookup tools, product search and purchase links allowing consumers to earn Max Miles at over 450 merchants.
The heymax.ai Card Maximiser helps users track their spending and optimise their rewards, providing them with personalised insights that empower them to make the most of their financial resources.
Through a first-of-its-kind partnership with Visa, users can link their cards in a minute, and start seeing all of their card transactions tracked in real-time in the heymax.ai app, which identifies areas for improvement, guiding users to better financial decisions.
5. SmashFi (South Korea)
SmashFi is a service designed to help individual investors easily accumulate and securely store Bitcoin.
Often, new investors purchase Bitcoin through exchanges and leave it there, exposing their assets to risks such as exchange bankruptcy or hacking.
While self-custody via personal wallets is an alternative, the process is complex and daunting, with the added fear of losing assets if the private key is misplaced.
SmashFi addresses these issues by simplifying the process of transferring Bitcoin from fiat-to-crypto exchanges to personal wallets, reducing associated fees, and offering a recovery service in case of lost private keys.
Additionally, SmashFi provides an automated trading bot to help increase the user’s Bitcoin holdings. Their goal is to enhance accessibility to Bitcoin and promote a safer, more informed investment culture.
6. DigiChain Innovations (Australia)
DigiChain Innovations is a full-fledged web 2.0 and web 3.0 digital solutions and marketing company that is a 360° solution provider and a one-stop shop.
Their dynamic team of young and veteran professionals provide creative and innovative solutions that drive traffic and sales for our clients globally.
DigiChain Innovations’ solution aims to address these challenges through a multifaceted approach.
By leveraging the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records to create verifiable and transferable electronic trade documents on a blockchain platform, DigiChain Innovations can facilitate the digitisation of trade documents.
Additionally, smart contracts are utilised to automate trade processes and ensure compliance with predefined conditions.
Finally, the solution integrates the use of stablecoins for instant settlement by enabling real-time, secure payments through stablecoins once escrow conditions in the smart contract are met.
7. Mulai (Indonesia)
Mulai is an open-source, no-code AntiMoney Laundering and Fraud Prevention platform designed to help financial services enhance cross-border payment efficiency while reducing costs.
By offering an accessible and open-source solution for antifinancial crime compliance, Mulai addresses the significant challenges that traditional compliance systems pose, including high investment costs and steep learning curves for compliance teams.
The platform’s goal is to enable all financial service providers to easily meet regulatory requirements without the burden of complex and expensive systems, promoting broader access to compliance solutions across the industry.
8. Prometheus Data (United States)
Prometheus Data is a pioneering fintech company revolutionising risk management and decision-making processes.
The platform harnesses the power of AI to deliver solutions that empower both financial institutions and individual clients, enabling them to navigate the complexities of cross-border transactions and international dealings with confidence and precision.
Prometheus Data has developed an innovative AI-powered solution that enhances credit access for small businesses and entrepreneurs, especially those operating across borders.
Their technology leverages optical character recognition and Large Language Models to process financial data from various languages and sources, converting it into universally accepted credit metrics.
By integrating Open Banking data and industrial data, they can generate alternative credit scores that empower businesses with fairer access to financial services, driving global financial inclusivity.
9. KaiOS Enable Tomorrow (China)
The digital revolution offers vast access to information, communication, and financial services, yet many remain excluded due to the digital divide, lacking technology and internet access.
KaiOS is a game-changer, with its lightweight mobile operating system designed for feature phones, bringing internet power to affordable devices.
Its success in bridging this divide is proven by over 175 million devices shipped globally since inception.
KaiOS empowers individuals and communities with accessible education, turning financial wellness into a sustainable reality.
KaiOS aims to transform financial literacy with a gamified, interactive approach that is accessible to everyone – even those without handphones.
Ditching the one-size-fits-all methods with their personalised learning experience on smart feature phones, KaiOS ensures users gain practical and enduring financial skills. KaiOS’s ‘learn-to-earn’ model provides real incentives to embark on a digital journey, step by step.
Users convert the points they earn into coins with monetary value, which can then be used for savings and other financial services.
Recognising that many individuals still rely on cash, the platform utilises existing cash-digital bridges like airtime and mobile money agents.
10. Perfingo (Singapore)
Perfingo is the team behind Singapore’s largest personal finance community on Instagram, bringing financial literacy to the masses.
With nearly a decade in financial advisory and expertise in AI solutions, the team blends industry knowledge with cutting-edge tech.
Their mission: empower individuals to achieve their unique financial goals through an ecosystem of innovative tools.
They leverage community insights, advisory experience, and technological prowess to revolutionise personal finance management.
Perfingo is an innovative AI-powered personal finance app that revolutionises how Gen Z and Millennials approach their finances.
It uniquely combines behavioural science, AI and gamification with blockchain technology to create lasting financial habits.
The app addresses the critical need for personalised, everyday financial guidance by transforming complex financial management into an engaging, rewarding experience.
11. Dobin (Singapore)
Dobin is a Singapore fintech startup that empowers banked and underbanked customers in Southeast Asia to achieve financial well-being through open finance and AI.
Dobin is a comprehensive financial management platform that leverages data and personalisation to help users build and sustain healthy financial habits.
Dobin aggregates data from bank accounts, credit cards, and digital wallets, enhancing users’ financial visibility and control.
It then helps users benefit from tailored merchant discounts, personalised credit card recommendations, and access to credit by building their credit profile.
Dobin also provides real-time insights into spending, personalised recommendations on credit cards, and curated discounts to help users save and earn more rewards.
12. ALGOGENE (Hong Kong)
ALGOGENE is the next-gen investment platform for learning, developing, testing, executing and investing trading bots.
The team have been working with various brokerage firms, crypto exchanges, asset management companies, family offices and prop trading firms by providing intelligent trading algorithms and wealth management solutions.
ALGOGENE’s solutions are highly recognised in the financial market with 30+ international awards, including 1st place in the Global Fintech Award at SFF 2023 presented by MAS.
ALGOGENE’s Portfolio Builder is an AI-driven decision tool designed to help investors learn and build personalised investment portfolios.
It leverages advanced AI models and Nobel prize-winning investment theories to analyse risk and returns, enabling users to discover optimal asset allocations aligned with their financial objectives and constraints.
The solution provides comprehensive analysis, including multi-asset portfolio construction, dynamic constraints optimisation, performance simulation, and real-time risk alerts.
It simplifies the complexities of financial research and trading management, providing an institutional investment process accessible to all market participants.
13. Your Financial Wellness (Australia)
The team at Your Financial Wellness (YFW) is a dedicated group of financial experts, technologists, and strategists focused on accelerating financial literacy and building good financial habits.
By leveraging advanced data analytics and personalisation, the team delivers tailored financial education and solutions that are uniquely relevant to each user’s financial journey.
Their vision is to make financial wellness accessible, actionable and impactful for all. YFW offers a scalable, personalised platform designed to tackle the global challenges of financial literacy and wellness.
The platform is a turn-key solution made available through financial institutions and employers and helps users articulate and achieve their financial goals and aspirations.
By leveraging advanced data analytics and algorithmdriven personalisation, YFW delivers content that is uniquely relevant to each user’s financial situation, ensuring greater engagement, improved financial literacy and better decision-making.
14. Ample Fintech Pte. Ltd. (Australia, Singapore)
Ample is advancing next-generation financial infrastructure with a focus on tokenisation for trusted credentials and programmable payments, particularly in cross-border trade, supply chain finance and inclusive finance. Ample completed Phases 1 (UTC-based Verifiable Credential) and 2 (PBM-based payment) of Project DESFT (Digital Economy Semi-Fungible Token), and successfully finished the CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) Pilot Project with the Reserve Bank of Australia, achieving 3rd place.
Ample was awarded the MAS FSTI Innovation Acceleration grant for excellence in fintech. Ample solution addresses the challenges through the following innovations:
• Tokenised trusted digital trade documents and credentials on the blockchain to reduce trust costs for businesses while enhancing accessibility under privacy-protected conditions.
• Instant settlement programmable payments to programme the use of money based on its intended purpose, and ensuring compliance while allowing both parties in a trade to automate trade processes through smart contracts.
• Easily auditable trusted transaction recordsto achieve trusted, verifiable, and easily auditable historical transaction records. This helps enterprises more easily obtain trade and supply chain financing, promoting inclusive finance.
15. Immortalize – Elderhood Marketplace (Singapore)
The team is made up of five women passionate about transforming elderhood planning from a maze of confusion into a seamless journey.
With diverse backgrounds – a Bloomberg journalist, a business owner, and three graduates – spanning across three countries, they unite under one shared vision.
Each member brings with her a unique set of skills and perspectives essential to the development of Immortalize.
Immortalize Elderhood Planning Digital Concierge is an automated personal assistant that gives you a big picture of what you need to know about planning for your legacy, tells you what solutions are right for you, identifies which solution providers are suitable for your needs, shows you how to optimise costs and manages and monitors your legacy plan for you.
For people with intent to do legacy planning, the digital concierge transforms legacy planning from a maze of confusion into a seamless journey.
For people without intent, the digital concierge empowers and incentivises wealth managers to help their clients with legacy planning.
16. WeGro (Bangladesh)
WeGro is a pioneering Agri-fintech platform that leverages Open Banking and peer-topeer (P2P) lending to offer tailored financial products, including loans, savings accounts and agricultural insurance, specifically designed for smallholder farmers.
Through alternative credit scoring and data aggregation, WeGro provides personalised financial solutions, especially to women who face barriers to formal credit access.
The platform integrates all aspects of the farmer’s financial journey, including onboarding, KYC verification, loan origination, product purchasing, and repayment within a single digital marketplace.
Additionally, WeGro facilitates P2P lending, enabling individuals and investors to directly fund farmers, aligning their interests, and fostering community driven financial support.
WeGro also offers a WeGro Visa prepaid debit card, integrated with POS systems at farmer centres, further enhancing financial accessibility and inclusion.
17. Cladfy Inc (Kenya)
Cladfy is a data analytics company that creates tools to assist Microfinance Lenders with smart loan management and statements analysis software, and connects them to affordable, reliable, financing partners.
Cladfy Inc’s solution is CashIQ, a transactionbased, credit profiling software that leverages Machine Learning technology to extract and organise data from mobile money and bank statements, to build a credit profile of MSEs like smallholder farmers, market vendors, neighbourhood shops, delivery riders, etc.
18. UNO Digital Bank (Philippines, India, Vietnam)
UNOvators are pioneers of a new approach to banking—one that elevates the user by making banking simple, better and accessible.
They are your companion for solutions to financial needs in transactions, saving, borrowing, investment, and protection through products that are suitable for you, exactly when you need them.
UNObiz is an innovative retail solution from UNO Digital Bank designed to provide essential financial tools and resources for microbusiness in the Philippines.
The merchant platform not only aims to digitalise the operations of the dominant segment of the retail industry, include them into formal finance, but also provides the vital access to credit to the micro retailers/micro entrepreneurs in a convenient way to help them grow their business creating a virtuous cycle.
By granting financial access to the unbanked through UNObank’s underwriting solution – the credit line issuance of UNObank via transaction data from MMS, transaction data from distributors, submission of tape receipts and/or sales logs, endorsement by distributors, possibility of open banking (because there is no open banking yet in PH), payment behaviours data, bank statements to name a few.
