8 for fortune: OCBC fintech accelerator reveals its participants

By Kevin McSpadden

The startups cover — among others — blockchain asset transfers, robo investment advisory and mobile wallets

OCBC Bank today has kicked off its ‘The Open Vault’ fintech accelerator programme in Singapore and announced the eight companies participating in the programme.

This week has been something of a ‘kick-off’ week for fintech accelerators organised by Singapore’s major banks. On Wednesday, UOB’s FinLab announced the nine participants in its accelerator.

The Open Vault will run for 12-weeks and the application process was certainly a gauntlet. From over 200 global applicants, 25 companies were chosen to pitch in front of a panel of judges. From there, eight of them were selected for the programme.

The accelerator will focus on B2B companies and will leverage OCBC’s ‘data sandbox’ and some startups will enter a pilot phase.

The companies come from all over the world with representatives from Israel, Europe and Asia.

Also Read: Why Singapore is a lush nursing ground for fintech startups

So, let’s meet the companies (and their countries).

BondIT (Israel)

BondIT is an alogrithm-based advisory SaaS product to help fixed income investment managers integrate data into portfolio construction, optimisation, rebalancing, analysis and monitoring.

The company hopes to differentiate itself from other data portfolio systems with its individual bonds solution the company says will help the investment managers of high net worth individuals make better decisions.

ChromaWay (Israel/Sweden)

ChromaWay is uses blockchain technology for both smart asset transfer and the development of smart contracts. Smart contracts are technology-based protocols to enforce the terms or performances of a given financial agreement.

Built on an open source platform, the product is meant to handle security, network problems and offers cloud-based tools.

Cognicor (Spain/India)

An intelligent customer service company, Cognicor targets corporate pain points with automated product queries, customer on-boarding and integration into existing CRMs.

The company says it can be deployed in 30 days and claims over 1 million queries answered to date.

Coins.ph (Philippines)

A mobile wallet, this Philippine-based company connects users directly with “life expenses” like paying bills and sending money. It is partnered with banks, department stores (even pawn shops) and payment centers.

As it leverages blockchain technology, the service can handle the national currency (Pesos) and bitcoin accounts.

Fincast (Australia)

A wealth management company that provides automated applications for financial institutions and investment advisors. It’s built on an open framework to allow clients to customise the service for their needs.

Also Read: 3 ways to attract Thai fintech talents against stiff regional competition

The differentiator for Fincast is it has been designed and tested by professional fund managers. It also values forward looking stress-testing and back-testing.

Onelyst (Singapore)

Onelyst is an online marketplace for loans. The platform is full of licensed money lenders and users tell the company what they need and multiple options of loans are displayed.

It is transparent even about less palatable parts of a loan such as late fees and extra charges. Lenders must hold a license from Singapore’s Ministry of Law.

Quantifeed (Hong Kong)

An online wealth management software, Quantifeed allows users to explore, customise, invest and manage equity, bond, and fund portfolios with full integration into a client’s back end system.

It also provides a news and blog service so people can keep track of the latest happenings in the financial sector.

Wealth Objects (UK)

The automated advisory company allows companies to customise investment portfolios to suit a client’s needs. On its website the company advertises help in goal-based and preference investing, ‘what-if’ analysis, optimisation allocation, investment analytics and the ability to define rebalancing plans.

It also offers engagement modules for financial institutions.

So, there you have it, the participants in the inaugural The Open Vault accelerator from OCBC.

First appeared at e27.com