The Flywire Challenge 2018 — a unique start-up competition for students and new higher education graduates in Singapore — announced three winners at the SP Jain School of Global Management on 17 August 2018. The event was graced by esteemed guest-of-honour Mr. Bruce Gosper, Australia’s High Commissioner to Singapore and hosted, sponsored and evaluated by Flywire, a leading provider of global payment solutions, in association with the SP Jain School of Global Management. The mission of the competition was to identify the next generation of FinTech start-up talent, and was powered by the funds awarded to Flywire in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) FinTech Awards (Singapore Open) in 2017.
The first-of-its-kind FinTech start-up competition:
The Flywire Challenge 2018 called for teams to pitch innovative and viable start-up ideas in the Health Technology, Education Technology and Travel Technology sectors, all of which are championed by Flywire’s payment solution provided to its clients. The competition drove participating teams to think creatively and present start-up proposals with real-world financial technology industry (FinTech) application by utilising Flywire’s breadth of payment functionality. Participants had the flexibility to capitalize on various features of Flywire’s product, such as its automated payment platform, the ability to pay locally in multiple currencies and methods, full payment tracking, and invoicing and instalment payment. Twenty proposals were submitted from which an internal Flywire panel selected seven finalists. Each finalist group presented its ideas to Mr. Andrew Ong of Flywire, Dr. John Fong of SP Jain School of Global Management, Mr. Gary Lim of Microsoft, Mr. Chia Hock Lai of Singapore FinTech Association (SFA), and Mr. Michael Novielli of Due West Education.
Three winning teams:
The finalists were judged based on four different criteria by the judging panel. The three winners were decided based on:
- Innovation;
- Ability to address or solve existing problems in education, travel or healthcare through technology;
- Accurate utilisation of Flywire’s free international payment collection capabilities; and
- Quality of presentations during a “pitch day” with the judges.
The three winners are:
- A Singaporean Nanyang Technological University student, Amanda Yang, who presented a travel technology solution consisting of a tiered point-rewards system that capitalises on and integrates with Flywire’s payment portal. The solution awards repeat payers using Flywire’s payment platform with points that can be cashed in for exclusive rewards.
- A Singaporean National University of Singapore student, Nicole Ng, who pitched an education technology solution which aggregates flight, accommodation, insurance and leisure options for students going abroad for exchange programmes. The solution allows for payment using Flywire’s platform, offering students multiple options for payment using their home currency.
- Three SP Jain School of Global Management students from India, Akshay Gupta, Vinayak RD and Sachin Sanjeev, introduced a health technology solution which automates claims management for hospitals and incorporates Flywire’s global collection solutions geared towards Indian hospitals with international patients.
The three winners of the Flywire Challenge each received a cash prize of SGD10, 000 from Mr. Andrew Ong of Flywire APAC, and an offer of a year-long rent-free working space at SP Jain’s Singapore campus.
The Flywire commitment:
“With the Flywire Challenge initiative, we are able to harness the power of our Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) FinTech award to nurture the next generation of technology start up thought leaders and industry change-makers throughout Asia-Pacific,” says Mr. Andrew Ong, Managing Director of Flywire APAC.
“It is important for us to be able to re-direct our achievements with a challenging and relevant programme that will incubate innovative start-ups with real-world industry solutions. It has been inspiring to work with SP Jain School of Global Management to realise this vision of finding students with potential in the FinTech industry.”
This competition solidifies Flywire’s long-standing belief in creating partnerships with regional universities and various companies across the health, technology and education industries. The Flywire Challenge competition incubates the next generation of start-ups that aim to provide innovative solutions in these industries. Flywire focuses on creating solutions for these sectors, known for their need to process large cross-border transactions for institutions and payees. Flywire’s platform is able to process customised, prompt, transparent, and simple payments and receivable solutions for these customer segments.
“This collaboration between Flywire and SP Jain truly seeks to pave the way for students and graduates in the start-up scene by giving them the guidance and a platform to innovate,” says Dr. John Fong, CEO and Head of Campus of SP Jain Singapore. “We recognise that nurturing the next generation of disruptors is one of utmost importance.”
Source: https://picante.today/latest-news/2018/08/24/3255/three-winners-announced-at-flywire-challenge/