Deloitte Fintech Hackathon prototypes real-life FinTech solutions for Millennials

Published: 30 September 2016

Around 50 participants joined the Deloitte Fintech Hackathon on 19-20 September 2016, sponsored by Deloitte together with HSBC and FINNOVASIA with the objective to prototype financial services ideas and solutions that cater to the needs of millennial customers and to encourage the development of financial technology (commonly known as Fintech) in Hong Kong, a leading financial market globally.

A hackathon, which is also known as a hack day, hackfest or codefest, is an event in which developers and others involved in digital product development, including graphic designers, interface designers and product managers, collaborate in a short period of time to build a working prototype of a solution. Being self-explanatory, the Deloitte Fintech Hackathon is for the development product and service solution related the financial industry.

“Technology is disrupting almost every type of financial activity, where tasks once handled with paper money and human interaction are now being processed entirely on digital interfaces. In the new digital age, financial institutions need to respond to values and lifestyles of the millennials, and this has also presented unprecedented opportunities to software developers, designers and startups,” said Louise Brett, Senior Partner & FinTech Lead, Deloitte Digital UK.

Kuan Howe Chan, Financial Advisory Services Director, Deloitte China, said the two-day event provided participants with an opportunity to present and test FinTech related product and service ideas to a panel of industry experts, who served mentors to offer constructive advice and guidance. Those with viable ideas were given the chance to pitch their concept to a judging panel comprising banking executives, venture capitalists and successful FinTech entrepreneurs. Deloitte China Partners for Advisory in Audit Services – Peter Koo, Yat-man Chan, and Gloria Luk were among the mentors for this two-day brainstorming marathon.

Three winning groups were identified by the judges, and they received prizes with total value of HK$100,000, including cash awards, new technology gadgets and a one-month free workspace at the Wave – a creative co-working space where you can meet like-minded peers and network with the FinTech community. The winning ideas involve engaging the social media to solicit sponsorship from friends to buy an insurance policy and secure interest from small investors to support a business start-up idea.