Seoul City and Shinhan Card Foster 'Fintech Startups' to Innovate Financial Services

'2022 Pinovation Challenge: Seoul City × Shinhan Card' Held to Discover Promising Fintech Companies

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 2nd that it will hold the '2022 Finovation Challenge: Seoul × Shinhan Card' in collaboration with Shinhan Financial Group to discover promising fintech companies.

The 'Finovation Challenge' is a joint project between Seoul, which is focusing on fostering the fintech industry, and Shinhan Card, which applies innovative technologies on the ground to verify marketability, aiming to nurture fintech innovation companies in a sustainable way rather than short-term efforts.

This year's theme is 'Data-Driven Open Innovation.' Any fintech company with ideas for financial technologies or services that can utilize various data held by financial companies (card companies) and integrate them with the unique business of card companies can participate.

Three fintech companies selected through screening will receive systematic support programs including △ Seoul Fintech Lab All-in-One Growth Package support △ mentoring linked with domestic and international expert networks △ selection as Shinhan Futures Lab nurturing companies and support for global expansion △ participation in the Seoul Digital Finance Festival △ investment opportunities from Shinhan Financial Group.

The selected fintech companies are required to move into Seoul Fintech Lab. Depending on the growth stage of each company, they can use a customized incubating program for fintech startups that supports commercialization, investment, marketing, technology development, legal and patent matters, and promotion. In addition, through the Seoul Investment Agency, they will receive investment attraction and overseas expansion support linked with large corporations and financial companies.

After completing the nurturing program, the companies will present their advanced business items through collaboration in October. Based on this, outstanding fintech companies will be awarded up to 20 million KRW in commercialization support funds, and continuous support and business collaboration will be possible thereafter depending on demand. Fintech companies within 7 years of establishment that possess innovative technologies and wish to participate in the '2022 Finovation Challenge: Seoul × Shinhan Card' can apply from the 2nd on the INNO TALK website.

The award ceremony for the Finovation winning companies will be held during the '2022 Seoul Digital Finance Festival.' Starting this year, the existing Seoul Finance Week has been completely revamped into the largest domestic digital finance industry festival, widely involving general citizens, prospective entrepreneurs, financial companies, and various sectors. The '2022 Seoul Digital Finance Festival' will be held for three days from October 25 to 27 in Yeouido.

Seoul operates Seoul Fintech Lab, Digital Finance Graduate School, and Fintech Academy to foster Yeouido as a global financial industry hub. Especially from this year, Seoul plans to expand open innovation projects where fintech companies and traditional financial institutions, as well as large and medium-sized enterprises in other industries, grow and coexist together.

Hwang Bo-yeon, Director of Economic Policy at Seoul City, said, "Seoul will achieve the substantial growth of promising fintech companies through continuous partnership building and support, not short-term events, so that unicorn companies that lead Asia's financial market and the global financial market can emerge."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.