Hong Kong FinTech Week UK Pavilion Directory

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Foreword

Hello everyone!

I would like to welcome you to the UK Pavilion at Hong Kong FinTech Week 2022.

The UK Government is proud to support the event. We are delighted to present outstanding UK FinTech companies that exemplify the strengths and quality of what our FinTech industry has to offer.

As a leading global financial centre, the UK has long developed groundbreaking technologies within the sector by utilising its robust ecosystem and international talent pool across the whole country. The foundation of our success lies in the strength of our financial services sector – as an originator and buyer of FinTech – combined with a vibrant market for cutting-edge products and services and a regulatory environment that leads the world in the support it provides for innovation.

On a broader level, we are confident about the UK FinTech sector’s contribution to pursuing the “FinTech 2025” Strategy published by the Hong Kong Monetary

Authority. We are ready to collaborate with Hong Kong’s FinTech sector in this regard.

Our team will be present throughout the event to answer any questions and hear about your experiences in implementing FinTech. Whether you are a banker, FinTech solution supplier, policy maker or someone who is simply interested in getting to know more about FinTech in the UK, please come visit us for a chat at Booth D07.

We look forward to meeting you. I hope that this week will provide a platform for the exchange of ideas that will help meet the needs of the growing FinTech market here in Hong Kong.

Brian Davidson CMG British Consul-General to Hong Kong and Macao

About Us

The British Consulate-General in Hong Kong maintains and develops relations between the UK and Hong Kong. Our Trade and Investment Department helps Hong Kong businesses, investors and buyers successfully do business in the UK.

For businesses expanding to the UK

We help you in every aspect of expanding your business to the UK. Our wide range of digital tools and services are designed to help you save time and reduce cost.

For investors allocating capital in the UK

From family offices to sovereign wealth funds, we work with investors of all kinds to support the investment journey with tailored advice, insight and introductions.

For buyers importing from the UK

By showing you what the UK has to offer, we can help you find the right products and services for your business.

www.great.gov.uk

DirectID

Contact James Varga CEO & Founder james.varga@direct.id

Head office: 83 Princess Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2ER www.direct.id directid

Company Introduction

Traditional credit scores are outdated, ineffective and exclusive. DirectID helps providers make better, easier and more financially inclusive decisions by using Open Banking data and advanced realtime insights. This is our purpose – to create a global credit score that powers a more financially inclusive market.

Lenders increase rates by accessing more of their market at less cost, lower fraud and with reduced risk. Consumers get convenience and better access to what they need at a level they can really afford.

DirectID powers financial inclusion by leveraging open banking data to optimise credit & risk decisions. We provide a range of advanced insights from income verification to affordability, DirectID empowers decision makers to make better-informed credit & risk decisions with customer bank data.

DirectID supports more than 60 customers today, including global brands like Deliveroo, Ford, EY, Deloitte, Best Egg, XE, Butterfield Group, Target Group, Mansfield Building Society, Shieldpay and more across multiple countries.

With over 13,000 connections, DirectID provides advanced open banking data for credit & risk decision-makers across 45+ countries, providing more coverage than anyone else in the market today. Globally we estimate that 1.5bn end users can connect their bank accounts through the DirectID platform today.

Current activity in Hong Kong

DirectID has both investment and customers in Asia currently.

Hong Kong expansion plan and motivation

DirectID is a global platform and Hong Kong is seen as a potential market for us. We are seeing traction and interest supported by existing customers starting to deploy us in the country and now looking beyond the short term and into the longer term opportunities.

Company’s objectives for the Hong Kong market

DirectID’s objectives are commercially driven. We now have customers starting to deploy us in the region.

Ebury

Contact

Jonathan Wang Managing Director China and Hong Kong jonathan.wang@ebury.com

3rd Floor, 100 Victoria Street, SW1E 5JL, London

www.ebury.com

Company Introduction

Ebury is a financial services company, specialising in international cash management solutions including cross-border payments, FX risk management and business lending. Our unique product offering helps businesses prosper and grow in a highly competitive environment by eliminating boundaries and making international finance simple and universally accessible.

We have over 1,300 employees worldwide providing services from 32 offices in 20 countries. We offer over 130 currencies to our clients and have processed over $21bn in transactions in the last 12 months.

Unlike other financial service providers,we’ve built our technology to offer a secure endto-end payment infrastructure, developed extensive partnerships to provide global reach and diversified our solutions to support the growth of our clients.

Whether an importer or exporter, an NGO, an e-commerce platform or a service provider, our solutions are designed to create a seamless international finance process.

Ebury provides a unique combination of lending, currency and payment solutions to meet the needs of international businesses and accelerate their growth.

Current activity in Hong Kong

Ebury currently has an office in Hong Kong to serve local corporate clients. Many of our European clients also have business dealings with companies in China and Hong Kong.

Hong Kong expansion plan and motivation

Further expansion of 5-10 potential headcount to leverage Hong Kong as Asia’s FinTech / talent hub

Company’s objectives for the Hong Kong market

Ebury can provide the most comprehensive FX solutions for all Hong Kong companies with FX needs. As an international financial centre, Hong Kong is an important bridge for Chinese companies to develop their export trade. We believe that we can provide quality and irreplaceable services to our Hong Kong trading clients.

FNZ

Contact Gabriel Goh Managing Director, APAC Strategic Growth gabriel.goh@fnz.com

10th Floor, 135 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3TP www.fnz.com

fnz

Company Introduction

FNZ believes that wealth’s potential is limitless, but legacy technology is holding it back. We’ve built a new foundation that unifies and modernises a fragmented industry. This means we’re making it possible for millions of new and existing investors, at all levels, to harness wealth’s full potential to grow.

We are opening up wealth:

• by breaking down barriers that create complexity and friction;

• by creating modern, digital-first experiences for our customers and their investors’

• to make it more transparent and personalised for every investor

But above all, we are opening up wealth by giving people more freedom to invest in what matters to them. It’s a vision we’re making real through the collective efforts of our people, passion and technology.

FNZ currently have 4,000+ employees globally, and our shareholders includes: Temasek, CDPQ-Generation IM, CPP Investments and Motive Partners.

Current activity in Hong Kong

FNZ has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Tokyo. We are currently working with multiple leaders in the Financial services sector in Asia.

Hong Kong expansion plan and motivation

We are looking to grow client base and business in Hong Kong to take advantage of its position as an international financial hub within Greater China. We are motivated by both Hong Kong’s historically strong reputation and forward-looking cross-border opportunities, supported by world-class talent available within this city.

Company’s objectives for the Hong Kong market

FNZ is looking to leverage our global technology and experience to deliver best-in-class wealth management platform and BPO services, partnering with financial intermediaries (banks, asset managers, insurers) across the Greater Bay Area while taking advantage of Hong Kong’s position in Greater China, as the gateway between East and West.

Intellibonds Ltd

Contact

Igor Tesinsky CEO igor@intellibonds.com

Level 39, One Canada Square, London, E14 5AB www.intellibonds.com intellibonds

Company Introduction

Intellibonds is a SaaS platform that helps banks and fixed income investors generate better returns through an AI-augmented investment decision process while lowering the operational cost through intelligent automation.

Current activity in Hong Kong

Intellibonds currently has a business representative in Singapore.

Hong Kong expansion plan and motivation

Intellibonds believes that our products are very relevant for the local bond market and that of China. We want to be one of first companies offering intelligent portfolio construction and optimisation functionalities to local institutional investors and banks.

Company’s objectives for the Hong Kong market

As of now, Intellibonds would like to find a business partner that would help us to distribute our products locally. We would like to create a local subsidiary as our next step.

KX

Contact

Meilin Xu Business Development Executive mxu@kx.com

Brian Conlon House 3 Canal Quay, Newry, Co. Down BT35 6BP N. Ireland kx.com/about/contact/ kx-systems

Company Introduction

KX is part of the FD Technologies group (listed on LSE) of data-driven businesses that unlock the value of insight where the window of opportunity to make critical decisions is narrowing to sub-seconds as data volumes expand and data sources are multiplying.

KX Insights, its data management and analytics solution, enables enterprises to capture, store and analyze all their data anytime, anywhere and power actionable decision-making by uniquely enriching realtime data analytics with historical insight.

Current activity in Hong Kong

KX’s regional head office is in Singapore and we have 4 other offices in Asia including Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Sydney. We are working with some of the larger Chinese brokerages and banks in both Hong Kong and China.

Hong Kong expansion plan and motivation

We would like to land and expand into the local banks and financial institutions.

Company’s objectives for the Hong Kong market

Currently KX works with all of the tier 1 financial institutions and we would like to expand our business into the local and regional market in Hong Kong, the greater bay area and Greater China.

ONBORD

Contact Edward Cahill CEO

edward.cahill@onbord.com

24 Holborn Viaduct London EC1A 2BN www.onbord.com onbord

Company Introduction

ONBORD provides an all-in-one onboarding solution for businesses. We combine antifraud, AML screening and credit decisioning in one white label system. The solution is delivered in a no-code solution for SMEs and an API for larger enterprises.

We believe in true KYC in a holistic way and we don’t believe it should be a tick the box exercise particularly as fraud increases around the world.

Our USP is that we were designed to be implemented instantly without requiring expensive staff or a complicated development project. We have over 50 data integrations built into the system to enable us to create a risk picture of a person or business anywhere in the world instantly. Everyone in the system is risk categorised automatically and there are a large amount of anti-fraud checks that most businesses couldn’t easily implement.

Current activity in Hong Kong

We are onboarding clients globally for our 55 clients, many of which have end clients in the APAC region.

Hong Kong expansion plan and motivation

We have been part of a programme and trade mission that have made us certain that Hong Kong should be our base in the region as it seems the regulatory and ecosystem support is very much focused on becoming a centre of excellence in RegTech. We aspire to become the best in class provider of onboarding technology globally.

Company’s objectives for the Hong Kong market

ONBORD is active in the UK market but we already process quite a few Hong Kong residents for our clients so we have established our system is effective in the region. We believe we can immediately have an impact at law firms, exporters and other non-financial entities in the region.

We also hope to impress the larger financial institutions but we believe our greatest benefit may be to provide a first line of defence to their business customers rather than to replace or augment any systems they may already have.

Any Counterparty, Anywhere, for Any Business

Quod Financial

Contact

Theo Boeuf APAC Account Manager

45 Moorfields, London, EC2Y 9AE, UK

www.quodfinancial.com quod-financial

Company Introduction

Quod Financial is a multi-asset order & execution management system provider with a strong DNA around automation and data-driven trading. Our mission is to help brokers worldwide to achieve best execution while giving them the ability to automate an important part of their workflow through technology.

Quod is a privately owned company based in London who employs around 170 people across the world (New York, London, Paris, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong and Singapore).

Current activity in Hong Kong

Quod currently has an active customer in Asia that we provide with our solutions to in Hong Kong and Taiwan. We are also engaging with industry leaders in the rest of Asia to locate potential customers.

Hong Kong expansion plan and motivation

Quod currently has an active customer in Asia that we provide with our solutions to in Hong Kong and Taiwan. We are also engaging with industry leaders in the rest of Asia to locate potential customers. Quod knows there is a real market opportunity for the company to develop in Hong Kong

and we have good chances to start working with one of the biggest brokers here by the end of 2022. To support these potential opportunities, we are currently hiring 5 new positions locally. We are expecting to reach a total number of 15 employees by the end of 2023 to support our growth in the market.

Company’s objectives for the Hong Kong market

As a very strong European player in the OEMS space, Quod plans to enter the Hong Kong market by using different strategies.

1. Leveraging our EU customer relationship to sign with their local subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Asia in general

2. Leveraging the local and global partnership we have with DIT, Refinitiv, Torstone, etc to earn credibility in the Hong Kong market

3. Hiring local talents

theo.boeufsassetti@gmail.com

Shufti Pro Limited

Contact

Barry Wong (in Hong Kong)

Head of Sales - APAC barry@shuftipro.com

Steve Ullman (in UK)

CFO and Board Director steve.u@shuftipro.com

Coopergate House, 10 Whites Row, London E1 7NF www.shuftipro.com

shufti-pro

Shufti_Pro

Company Introduction

Shufti Pro is a global identity verification & compliance service provider that aims at building a future where identity is the key to access. Its product offering combines the power of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to verify that global government issued IDs are genuine or fraudulent and with facial biometric matching that it’s the same individual performing the verification as it is on the ID document.

Shufti Pro currently has its head office in the UK with other offices in Sweden, Dubai, Cyprus and the US – although it has circa 40 employees but also access to a further 100 contractors in its development team. The company has experienced high growth over the past couple of years with over 200% revenue growth from 2020 to 2021 and circa 70% revenue growth this year. It is financially stable and has recently raised $20m through a series A funding round with a US growth equity fund.

Today Shufti Pro serves more than 500+ clients globally from a variety of industry sectors. The company’s client include one of the largest global FinTechs, a couple of large financial institutions in Europe and SE Asia as

well as some of the largest FX companies in Europe and the US.

Current activity in Hong Kong

Shufti Pro have a few clients in Hong Kong and also a number of other clients in the rest of Asia Pacific, covering a number of different industries; such as Financial institutions, merchants and FX companies.

Hong Kong expansion plan and motivation

We are potentially looking to establish an office in Hong Kong in order to use this as a base to co-ordinate our sales efforts in the Asia Pacific region.

Company’s objectives for the Hong Kong market

Shufti Pro is looking to increase our profile in the APAC market and we are looking to use Hong Kong as one of our key centres in APAC in which to co-ordinate our operations in the region.

We see a lot of business opportunities in the APAC region and see this as key to our strategy to grow the business.

Smarter Contracts

Contact

Wayne Lloyd CEO

86-90 Paul Street, 3rd Floor, London, EC2A 4NE

Company Introduction

Smarter Contracts has built a data privacy, consent and data permissions management platform - Pulse. It provides businesses and organisations with a real-time view over how they should process and share their customers data. It uses the inherent features of blockchain and machine learning to unlock greater personalisation and insights without compromising the standards of compliance that regulators demand.

We currently have 21 employees who are all predominantly based in the UK. We have a late seed funding round open for £2.5 million and have so far closed just over 10%. The funding will allow us to scale given that we have built our platform to an enterprise ready and institutionally secure standard.

Current activity in Hong Kong

Smarter Contracts is in conversations with banks that have a presence in Hong Kong. We are integrating our software into a global payments company that does have operations in South East Asia.

Our founder has worked in Hong Kong and Asia for a number of years previously and given that our software is now fully operational we’re looking forward to growing a footprint there once again.

Hong Kong expansion plan and motivation

Hong Kong and Mainland China are currently operating under the strictest data protection laws in the world. For this reason our primary objective for entering is to help organisations operating in that market achieve the highest levels of compliance at all times. By doing so, we believe we can help its citizens take control over their data in line with the requirements of the privacy ordinance.

Due to funding we do not yet have a defined growth plan and our focus has been the UK and EU but we know that if we are able to unlock demand in that region we would scale and grow into that region with speed. There are currently no organisations doing quite what we do in the privacy space so it presents a great opportunity for us.

Company’s objectives for the Hong Kong market

Smarter Contracts’ objective is to provide the region with a consent management platform that allows them to achieve the highest levels of compliance in line with Hong Kong’s privacy ordinance and PIPL.

By integrating Pulse into large and medium sized organisations operating under these strict data protection laws we would be able to develop new product features that would further improve Pulse and the standards of compliance for businesses in Hong Kong.

TranSwap Technologies (UK) Limited

Contact Michael Ho Product Manager

michael.ho@transwap.com

50 Lothian Road, Festival Square, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH3 9WJ

www.transwap.com/uk transwapgroup

Company Introduction

TranSwap is an award-winning FinTech provider that’s customisable to your business needs. Our mission is to help transform your company into a FinTech, or help you grow your business with a global account that lets you pay, collect and convert better than the banks.

Current activity in Hong Kong

TranSwap is licensed and have presence in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia. Supporting individuals, businesses, and financial institutions.

Hong Kong expansion plan and motivation

Hong Kong is a dynamic and a city full of opportunities. With the resumption of international travelling, TranSwap can definitely see new opportunities in the market.

Company’s objectives for the Hong Kong market

We aim to provide global banking services to individuals and businesses in Hong Kong.

Wise Payments Limited

Contact

Terence Lum Business Development Manager terence.lum@wise.com

The Tea Bldg, 56 Shoreditch High St, London E1 6JJ, United Kingdom www.wise.com

Wiseaccount Wise

Company Introduction

Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move money around the world. With the Wise account, retail customers and businesses can hold over 50 currencies, move money between countries and spend money abroad. Large companies and banks use Wise technology too; an entirely new cross-border payments network that will one day power money without borders for everyone, everywhere. However you use the platform, Wise is on a mission to make your life easier and save you money.

Current activity in Hong Kong

Wise has launched our “Send Money” product in Hong Kong and the rest of Asia in countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan & India.

Hong Kong expansion plan and motivation

Wise personal and business customers have been able to send money from Hong Kong since 2018. We want to be able to continue to make moving money even faster, easier, and cheaper. We have also made our services more convenient, such as building partnerships which allow Wise customers to send Chinese Yuan to users of Alipay and Weixin in China. We were amongst the first FinTechs to integrate with FPS in Hong Kong, which enables Hongkongers to receive funds from abroad with just their mobile number.

Company’s objectives for the Hong Kong market

To continue working towards our mission: Money Without Borders, to make moving money instant, convenient, transparent and eventually free.

UK Government’s Offer and Support For Inward Investors

Overview

The UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) provides end-to-end support for inward investors in the UK. We support your investment journey whether you are a brand new inward investor or already have an established business in the UK.

General Support

The services we provide to overseas companies include:

• Accessing market opportunities: helping international companies assess market opportunities in the UK.

• Access and introductions to the right people: working with every UK government department to support access to a vast network of industry experts.

• Setting up in the UK: we provide a range of support from applying for visas and entry to the UK to set up procedures, to the UK tax system and site selection.

• Bespoke market research: compiling in-depth factual reports including market entry support, research and development collaborations and cost analysis.

• On-going government support: continued support after your business is established in the UK, providing assistance on expansion and representing your interests in government. Entrepreneurial assistance through a network of mentors to help make a commercial success of early stage companies.

FinTech Launchpad

DIT provides access to tailored expert advice to accelerate the expansion of high-potential FinTechs from overseas markets into the UK. The support package will consist of pro-bono 1-2-1 support from DIT’s network of partners including law firms, consultancies and organisations from the professional services sector.

FinTechs wishing to apply for this bespoke support are encouraged to get in touch with DIT’s FinTech team in Hong Kong and the UK to find out more.

Case Study : BzQuick

About BzQuick

Co-headquartered in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom with an R&D Centre in Taiwan, BzQuick empowers businesses and banks to transform together in the digital economy.

Their commerce automation solutions (B2B, B2C, B2B2C) are plug-and-play and preintegrated with banking services. They help merchants not only to drive more businesses but also become more accessible to the banks’ latest technology even without the knowhow. On the other hand, banks can tap into the under-explored small-and-medium sized market quickly with their financial services (bank transfer, FX, working capital, etc.) embedded into the merchants’ business flow.

BzQuick is a licensed developer of VISA International. They are also the official referrer of an international bank in Hong Kong.

How the UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) supported BzQuick’s journey to the UK

BzQuick has aimed to establish as a global company since day one and had already collaborated with an international bank and a global FinTech company in the UK on separate innovation projects, even before establishing an entity here. With zero knowledge about how companies are set up in the UK, Andrew Lo, the co-founder sought advice from DIT.

DIT conducted a detailed survey on BzQuick’s needs and identified three local trade & investment organisations for them. DIT also helped BzQuick with set up a business bank account and understand the sandbox environment for FinTech. With a consultative approach and close follow-ups, BzQuick chose Leeds as their UK headquarters within a month.

BzQuick’s plans for the UK

BzQuick is an asset-light SaaS company and has just gone through the product development phase. With their modular technology and highly automated internal processes, they can cover a wide spectrum of segments (B2B, B2C, B2B2C) with crystal clear business transparency even from afar.

Their plan for the UK is to leverage the geographical and FinTech sector advantages here to expand the business in Europe at a quick pace. The trade & investment organisation in Leeds is very supportive and they have already introduced at least three incubation programmes, and four potential FinTech investors for BzQuick when the cofounder visited the UK in September 2022.

UK-HK FinTech Partnership and Initiatives

UK-Hong Kong FinTech Bridge

The UK has entered into a Fintech Bridge agreement with Hong Kong. The bespoke agreement creates valuable opportunities for the UK by overcoming barriers to international market entry and linking UKbased Fintech companies with opportunities in Hong Kong and vice versa.

The agreement promotes trade and investment opportunities through:

• Collaboration between key players in the UK and Hong Kong FinTech sectors

• Regulatory agreements that support firms to overcome market access barriers in each jurisdiction

By sharing knowledge and best-practice with Bridge jurisdictions, and aligning international FinTech policy development, the bridge increases opportunities for FinTech firms to export solutions to key markets at pace.

FCA-HKMA Co-operation Agreement

Under the agreement, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) will give assistance to FinTech companies when they establish overseas operations in the UK and Hong Kong by the regulators.

When a referral is received, the FCA and HKMA both intend to provide assistance to the FinTech companies in understanding the regulatory environment that they oversee, they will also explain whether the rules and regulatory schemes may impact the FinTech companies entering the respective markets. The agreement also states that the FCA and HKMA intend to share crucial information about brand new innovations in financial services in the respective markets, such as on emerging trends and regulatory issues concerning to certain innovation. The FCA and HKMA will also look for joint innovation projects on the application of FinTech, sharing expertise and knowledge, and facilitate staff secondments to one another under this agreement.

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Resources and Further Information

Supporting organisations, trade associations & networks

Tech Nation: https://technation.io/contact-us/

City of London Corporation: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/footer/c ontact-the-city-corporation

Tech London Advocates: https://www.techlondonadvocates.org.uk/ contact/

FinTech Alliance: https://fintech-alliance.com/contact-us

London & Partners: https://business.london/invest/contact-us

BIMA: https://bima.co.uk/contact-us/

UK Research & Innovation: https://www.ukri.org/about-us/contact-us/

UK Science Park Association: https://www.ukspa.org.uk/contact-us/

Innovate Finance: https://www.innovatefinance.com/contact/

TheCityUK: https://www.thecityuk.com/contact/ TechUK: https://www.techuk.org/contact-us.html

UK Finance: https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/contact-us

Association of Foreign Banks: https://www.foreignbanks.org.uk/contact/ Coadec: https://coadec.com/contact/

UK Business Angels Association: https://www.ukbaa.org.uk/contact-us/

Accelerator & incubator hubs Level39: https://www.level39.co/

FinTech Innovation Lab London: https://www.fintechinnovationlab.com/ regions/london/

Techstars: https://www.techstars.com/

Raise: https://raise-ventures.com/

Ignite: https://www.ignite.io/

Startupbootcamp: https://www.startupbootcamp.org/

Department for International Trade

The UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) has overall responsibility for promoting UK trade across the world and attracting foreign investment to our economy. We are a specialised government department with responsibility for negotiating international trade policy, supporting business, as well as delivering an outward looking trade diplomacy strategy.

Disclaimer

Whereas every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this document is accurate, the Department for International Trade and the Contributors accept liability for any errors, omissions or misleading statements, and no warranty is given or responsibility accepted as to the standing of any individual, firm, company or other organisation mentioned.

© Crown copyright 2022

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/ doc/opengovernment-licence/version/3

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

Published by Department for International Trade

October 2022