The FinTech Center(Chairman: Yu-sin Jeong) hosts 「FinTech Demo Day in Silicon Valley」 on November 3 (Thursday) in Santa Clara, USA.
This event is one of the overseas Demo Day series held to support overseas advancement of outstanding Korean FinTech companies, and this is the 4th event following the Demo Days held in China (Dec. 2015), South East Asia (June, 2016) and London (July, 2016)
The event is held in conjunction with the K-Global Silicon Valley (Nov. 2 ~ Nov. 3, 2016) event, which supports Korean ICT companies and start-up's to advance to the US market
Key personnel including Mr. Jae-yu Choi, the 2nd Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning(MSIP), Mr. Jong-lok Yoon, the President of the National IT Industry Promotion Agency(NIPA) and Mr. Yeon-jun Kim, Manager of the e-Finance of the Financial Services Commission and around 300 people from 25 Korean start-up's in various area and local investors attended the event and showed special interests on Korean FinTech technologies
On the day's event: ❶ The FinTech Center and the US FinTech supporting agencies (500 Startups, Silicon Valley Forum) signed an MOU on mutual cooperation ❷ Two Korean FinTech companies (Paycock, Poppay) signed MOU's with US companies for their local service in the USA, and they also presented business plans ❸ There were technology presentations and 1:1 investment counselling of Korean FinTech companies (5 companies).
FinTech Center's Signing MOU
The FinTech Center and local US start-up supporting agencies, the 500 Startups and the Silicon Valley Forum each signed an MOU on strengthening the cooperation in FinTech area between two countries.
500 Startups is a leading global venture capital in Silicon Valley and a start-up accelerator, and it has supported around 1,700 start-up's from 50-some countries in funding investment and nurturing program operation since its foundation in 2010.
Silicon Valley Forum is a 33-years-old non-profit start-up supporting agency, and hosts more than 150 conferences and demo days equipped with a global network of more than 20 thousand people in 40 countries.
With the signing of the MOU, the two agencies agreed to strengthen the cooperation in FinTech area between two countries and expand the information interchange.
By signing this MOU followed by the MOU's with the UK, Australia, France and Singapore, the global FinTech cooperation foundation is expected to be significantly strengthened.
US Local Service Plan Announcement of Korean FinTech Companies
With this Demo Day event, two Korean FinTech companies announced their signing of MOU's on the US local service and their service plan.
Paycock, which provides safe and convenient mobile simple payment solution ('paygood') interlocking a smart phone camera with their own text recognition technology, is preparing to launch their service in Guam, and with this event, they signed and cooperation MOU for building a payment infra network with leading local company in Guam, IDX(CEO: Fabian Garces).
And later when the distribution project of the 'paygood' payment system is more actualized, they plan to invite investment from a local US investment firm, Calvo Enterprise.
On the other hand, Poppay, which provides a solution for customers to pay mobile by sending bills to customers' smart phones, was selected for a foster program of a local accelerator, Plug and Play, and they announced their plan to launch their services centered around local affiliates such as local fast food restaurants and food trucks in San Francisco.
FinTech Companies' Technology Presentation
Five FinTech companies set exhibition booths at the Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, and proceeded their technology presentations and investment counselling with local investors and interested companies.
The participating local venture capitals, Angel Investors and start-up incubators showed active interests on Korean FinTech technology and spent time with participating FinTech companies building networks.
The Financial Services Commission continuously supports Korean FinTech companies to advance to the global market by hosting FinTech Demo Day in Silicon Valley following the events in China, South East Asia (Cambodia, Singapore) and London.
They plan to check and support participating FinTech companies' outcomes and difficulties of the advancement to the US, and by hosting a Demo Day in Beijing, China on December, they plan to continue on supporting Korean FinTech companies' overseas advancement.
