Concluding its fifth successful cohort, MEFTI 2023 came to a close on September 2, 2023. 13 MIT students came to Hong Kong to join forces with 14 local universities students in a 10-day FinTech startup bootcamp to explore the opportunities in the financial services sector, and experience the innovative process from ideation to pitching. Five Hong Kong student startup teams also participated in the bootcamp to learn more about the discipline entrepreneurship framework and how to improve their fintech solutions.
This year, our industry partners, Prudential Hong Kong and Openhive, challenged the MEFTI students to tackle real life industry challenges including how to harness the potential of generative AI to achieve operational excellence, and identifying business opportunities for banks and insurance companies through the use of AI and alternative data collaboration.
For Gad Lewinsohn, MBA candidate at MIT Sloan School of Management, a highlight of the program was the exposure to local ecosystem stakeholders.
“The best part of the program was being able to learn about the fintech ecosystem in Hong Kong and Asia in general through the speakers who presented daily about their experiences in verticals such as investments, insurance and crypto. In addition, we had the opportunity to visit the Hong Kong exchange and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, both key institutions in the development of the fintech ecosystem,” says Lewinsohn.
The bootcamp culminated with a showcase where 10 student teams pitched their innovation solutions to a judginpanel of industry professionals. Despite the Typhoon 10 warning in Hong Kong, the event was successfully held online with close to 200 participants in attendance.
Thanks to the support of our strategic partner, Hong Kong Monetary Authority; industry partners, Prudential HK and Openhive; and supporting organizations, HKU LITE Lab, Fintech Association of Hong Kong and HKPC Inno Space, students were able to learn more about the fintech sector, and valuable knowledge on entrepreneurship. We would also like to thank the funding support from the Innovation and Technology Commission for making this bootcamp possible.
Three teams were awarded for their creative solutions:
Prudential HK challenge Innovation Award: Team 2 – dataid
Openhive Challenge Innovation Award: Team 4 – Globalife
Audience’s Choice Award: Team 5 – Data Bridge
Overall, all students and startup participants enjoyed the bootcamp, students felt that “the information learned was valuable” and “was a unique immersive cultural exchange.”
