From Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
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Two Enterprise Ireland backed fintech companies Global Shares and Know Your Customer today announced new strategic partnerships with Hong Kong partners. The deals were announced at Hong Kong Fintech Week during Enterprise Ireland’s trade mission to China which commenced this week and is being led by Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD.
In total, fourteen Irish fintech companies backed by the Irish government, through Enterprise Ireland, are showcasing Ireland’s fintech capabilities at Hong Kong Fintech Week this week. Showcasing under the #IrishAdvantage brand, the Irish companies represent fintech areas including Regtech, Payments, Banking, InsurTech, Cloud Communications and Biometrics. Participation in this event, provides an important platform for the companies to accelerate their growth in APAC, particularly mainland China and Hong Kong.
Deals announced today include:
In addition, Currency Fair today formalised their strategic partnership with Hong Kong based, Convoy Payments.
Global Shares, Deloitte ‘FinTech Company of the Year’ and leading provider of equity compensation management solutions for global corporations, today announced that it will form a strategic partnership with Huanying International, one of the top online brokerage firms in Hong Kong and mainland China, to provide ESOP administration, share dealing, global compliance, financial reporting, and asset management services to new economy companies. The deal will be worth more than USD 15M in revenue over the next 5 years. Global Shares today also announced further expansion in Asia with the opening of a new office in Beijing, following the official launch of Global Shares' Hong Kong Office earlier this year.
Smart technology client verification solution provider Know Your Customer has finalised a deal with Hong Kong based fintech company Neat Limited. Neat’s integration of Know Your Customer’s onboarding solution through APIs, allows them to process hundreds of applications a day. The KYC solution allows them to carry out all necessary AML and KYC checks much faster and much more cost-effectively, while delivering an extremely smooth customer experience.
And earlier, CurrencyFair, a leading provider of International Money Transfer services to consumers and businesses worldwide announced a major expansion into Asia through the signing of a strategic partnership with Hong Kong-based Convoy Payments Limited. The partnership which was formalised today, is part of a €20 million (approximately HK$182 million) investment plan to drive rapid global growth which will also see the creation of 90 new jobs over the next 18 months. The new jobs will be created globally with particular emphasis on product development, customer service, compliance and marketing and global partnership development.
Irish Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys commented on the breadth of the deals, “Enterprise Ireland client companies are securing new contracts in global markets at an unprecedented level. The deals we’ve seen formalised today by Global Shares, Know Your Customer and CurrencyFair at Hong Kong Fintech Week demonstrate how much value Irish fintech companies can deliver to partners worldwide. It’s heartening to see recognition from companies the world over for the Irish fintech advantage.”
Commenting on the new partnerships, Enterprise Ireland CEO Julie Sinnamon noted that “The acceleration of fintech in Asia provides excellent opportunities for Irish companies to grow through strategic partnerships like the ones we’ve seen formalised here at Hong Kong FinTech week. These deals represent just some of the ways Irish FinTech can help accelerate growth, beyond revenue. We are seeing services being enhanced, jobs created and growth in combined portfolios. Today’s announcements highlight Ireland’s reputation as a significant source of fintech innovation and demonstrates the role Irish fintech companies can play in delivering solutions for our partners in Asia Pacific.”
Commenting on the expansion of Irish fintech companies in Hong Kong, Mo Harvey, Enterprise Ireland’s FinTech & Financial Services Lead, APAC said, “As Asia’s largest financial hub, Hong Kong is one of the most forward-looking cities in Asia when it comes to fintech deployment. Historically, Irish fintech companies have performed exceptionally well in Hong Kong. A strong cohort of over twenty Irish fintech companies are active in Hong Kong including key players such as FEXCO, Daon, Know Your Customer, CurrencyFair, Intuition Publishing, Fenergo, Fineos, Tax Back International, Corvil, Global Shares and Financial Risk Solutions. Between them, these companies have secured significant wins with some of the world’s leading financial services companies in Hong Kong such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China as well as local Hong Kong entities such as the Securities & Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Jockey Club.”
“We see real opportunity in the areas of regtech, payments, blockchain and big data and expect there to be a significant increase in the number of Irish companies entering the Hong Kong market in the next 6 to 12 months. There will be a particular focus on Regtech, cloud and banking companies in order to Hong Kong’s new virtual bank initiative which will create opportunities for collaboration and disruption. These companies have one thing in common - their choice of Hong Kong as their operational base to take on both the local market and expand into other Asia Pacific markets including mainland China,” added Mo Harvey.
ENDS
For reference, please contact:
Conor O’Donovan, Head of Communications & Marketing, Enterprise Ireland
Tel: 00 353 87 967 1342
Marika MacCarvill, International PR, Enterprise Ireland
Tel: 00 353 1 7272857 / 00 353 86 171 2568
Irish fintech companies showcasing at Hong Kong Fintech Week (stand number C04)
Currency Fair
Currencyfair enables individuals and small businesses to make international money transfers up to 8 times cheaper than bank. (Sector: Payments)
Daon
Dao is an innovator in developing and deploying biometric authentication and identity assurance solutions worldwide. (Sector: Biometrics/RegTech)
Know Your Customer
Know Your Customer provides an end-to-end digital solution that quickly and accurately identifies and verifies companies and individuals during client on-boarding. (Sector: RegTech)
Solgari
Solgari provides compliant, integrated omni-channel cloud communications services to FinTech, Financial Services & eCommerce companies in 34 countries. (Sector: Cloud Communications)
Fenergo
Fenergo is a leading provider of Client Lifecycle Management, AML/KYC Compliance and Client Data Management solutions for investment, corporate, commercial and private banks. (Sector: RegTech)
Leveris
Leveris is a completely modern, modular, non-legacy banking platform that supercharges the transformation of both traditional and challenger banks. (Sector: Financial Services)
Fineos
FINEOS is a global market leader in core insurance technology for Disability, Life, Accident and Health. (Sector: InsurTech)
Global Shares
Global Shares is a leading global provider of equity compensation management software, providing Equity Plan Administration, Global Custody, Share-Dealing and Financial Reporting to companies and their employees in over 100 countries worldwide. (Sector: Financial Services)
Coryltics
Corlytics provide relevant insights into the root causes of regulatory risk enabling financial firms to better plan their compliance programmes. (Sector: RegTech)
Intuition
Intuition is a leading global knowledge solutions company. Intuition help clients to optimize their knowledge capital through the provision of online courses, services, blended learning solutions and knowledge management technologies. (Sector: E-learning)
Priviti
Priviti helps companies systemise and manage granular consent for data sharing so they can collaborate with partners. Priviti enables any company to obtain, verify and match consent between multiple parties, transaction by transaction, with audit trails for compliance, dispute resolution and analytics. (Sector: RegTech)
Fexco
Fexco is a world leader in innovative FinTech, Payments & Business Solutions, with operations across 29 countries worldwide. (Sector: Payments)
Kyckr
Kyckr is a global business register to help with know your customer (KYC) processes for anti-money laundering regulations. It was established in Ireland but is now a publicly traded company on the Australian Securities Exchange with operations in Ireland and Australia. (Sector: RegTech)
Circit
Circit has developed a new product to make the financial audit faster and more effective by removing the paper-based processes for businesses. It is solving the long-standing challenge related to audit confirmation requests. For auditors, these are critical pieces of evidence. However, the paper process is time consuming for all parties, including the auditors, banks, solicitors and the businesses themselves. Furthermore, there are major fraud risks that Circit will eliminate, as well as the data security risk due to missing requests in the post. (Sector: DataSecurity)