Media Releases
Inaugural SFF x SWITCH to Kick Off Tomorrow with a Focus on Sustainability
Singapore, 10 November 2019… The Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) and the Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SWITCH) will come together for the first time as SFF x SWITCH. Running from 11 to 15 November, this event will gather the global innovation and business community in Singapore. There will be over 400 speakers, more than 900 exhibitors, 41 international pavilions, and about 60,000 participants from 130 countries.
2. Sustainability and Climate Change is the overarching theme of the combined conference this year, given the growing calls for the technology and financial sectors to be enablers and change agents for sustainability. This theme is reflected in the content of the conference, the design of the event space at the Singapore Expo and through the provision of food from sustainable sources. Please refer to Annex A for more details.
3. The inaugural SFF x SWITCH will feature innovative technologies across five key sectors – FinTech, Urban Solutions and Sustainability, Health and Biomedical Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering, and Services and Digital Services – to catalyse cross-industry exchange and learning in technology adoption, application of R&D, and commercialisation of new solutions.
Event Highlights
4. The event will kick off with the three-day SFF x SWITCH Conference (11-13 November) at the Singapore Expo. The Conference comprises nine stages, where prominent speakers will discuss topics on Sustainability, Finance and Tech; Future of Finance; Investment and Global Markets Opportunities; Exponential Technologies; Global Access to Innovation; Future Directions with Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Healthcare Innovation; Powering Cities of the Future; and Sustaining the Future of Humanity.
5. Among the speakers at the Conference are Her Majesty Queen Maxima of the Netherlands; Mr Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Singapore; Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education, Singapore, and Board Member, Monetary Authority of Singapore; Agustin Carstens, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements; Pavan Sukhdev, President, World Wildlife Fund International; Kees Immink, President, Turing Machines Inc; Pat Bajari, Vice President for Core AI, Chief Economist, Amazon; and Sergey Ryazanskiy, Pilot-Astronaut and Hero of the Russian Federation.
- Debuting this year is the Sustainability, Finance and Tech Summit (11-13 November), featuring over 50 speakers who will take the stage to discuss how they are paving the way for a more sustainable future in the world of finance and beyond.
- The annual Global Investor Summit (11 November) will bring together 17 venture capital, corporate venture capital and family office investors from San Francisco to Tokyo, to share their strategies for unlocking growth, impacting inclusion, and delivering long-term value creation in the FinTech and Deep Tech ecosystems.
- Leading the Deep Tech conference, the Global Access to Innovation track (11 November) will feature perspectives from a myriad of movers and shakers in Asia’s innovation ecosystem. From founders of tech unicorns to senior leaders from both the private and public sectors, conference participants can look forward to finding out more about the opportunities in market access, innovation and investment, in Asia and beyond.
- A new summit created this year to spotlight key issues faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is SME Digitalisation and Platforms – Business sans Borders (BSB) (13 November). The sessions in this track will cover pertinent issues such as ‘SME Financing Reimagined’, the ‘Impact of Trade Wars on SMEs and Platforms’ as well as the ‘Roadmap for BSB Beyond 2020’. The discussions will take place at a new Coral Triangle stage, which is designed for more intimate and interactive conversations.
6. Alongside the Conference is the combined SFF x SWITCH Exhibition curated by SingEx, which showcases innovative solutions in FinTech and Deep Tech from around the world. The 41 international pavilions will display solutions from their respective countries or regions. Visitors can also interact with 20 international financial regulators at the Regulators Zone to learn more about business opportunities and regulations in those countries.
7. The Innovation SG booth, featuring an interactive TechXperience Zone, will present technology, innovation and enterprise initiatives led by local and international players. From deal-making sessions and workshops, to industry launches and networking events, the showcase presents Singapore’s role as a vibrant Global-Asia node of innovation.
8. Three exciting Competitions for the global innovation community will reach its conclusion at SFF x SWITCH:
- The Global FinTech Hackcelerator Demo Day, taking place on 11 November, will present 20 market-ready FinTech solutions intended to solve real-life industry problems in financial inclusion, insurtech, RegTech and SupTech, and a general category. Winners will be revealed later on the same day.
- Winners of the FinTech Awards will be announced on 11 November, recognising innovative FinTech solutions that have been implemented by FinTech companies, financial institutions and technology companies. Attendees can also catch the finalists presenting their 5-minute company pitches on 12 November at the Open Stages.
- SLINGSHOT 2019 (11 – 13 November), Startup SG’s marquee startup pitching competition that highlights the best global startups, has a focus on increasing deal-making this year. Semi-finals will take place over the first two days where the SLINGSHOT Top Global 100 Startups across six key tracks will pitch their solutions to over 200 judges comprising industry veterans, corporates, tech giants and investors. More than S$2 million worth of prizes will be awarded. The top 12 startups will vie to be the Grand Winner at the Grand Finals happening on 13 November.
9. Investors and companies can look forward to the following Deal-Making Opportunities at SFF x SWITCH:
- Daily Mixers (11 and 12 November), taking place at the Innovation SG booth, will host some of the best-in-class global companies and investors and feature intimate Q&A sessions with top investors.
- TechInnovation (11 – 13 November), the premier technology-industry matching event, will showcase over 150 enabling technologies available for technology commercialisation or licensing. A special UK-Singapore innovation seminar and a thematic track on design-led innovation will also debut at TechInnovation this year.
10. The Innovation Lab Crawl (14-15 November) will feature research facilities and in-house laboratories from 53 partners in the areas of FinTech, Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering, Urban Solutions and Sustainability, Health and Biomedical Sciences and Services and Digital Economy. Interested parties can sign up at http://fintechfestival.sg/innovation-lab-crawl to see where new product and solutions are tested, learn about how these labs leverage the latest technologies and network with start-ups and key innovation executives.
11. Mr Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, MAS, said, “Each year, in running the Singapore FinTech Festival, we strive towards achieving our vision of making it a global platform for knowledge sharing. This year, our partnership with SWITCH has given us that opportunity to draw a larger technology-focused audience beyond the financial services sector. It has helped propel SFF x SWITCH into a platform for the world to share thought leadership, make meaningful connections and to build better ideas that will benefit our community.”
12. Mr Edwin Chow, Assistant Chief Executive Officer (Innovation & Enterprise), Enterprise Singapore, said, “With SFF x SWITCH as one event, we will bring together international tech communities, startups, investors, corporates and other enablers to network, share ideas and discuss collaborations. More than 40 international pavilions will present the latest innovative solutions and technology spanning across diverse sectors and disciplines. SFF x SWITCH presents opportunities for participants to start solving economic and industry challenges through innovation and entrepreneurship.”
13. Dr Cheong Wei Yang, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, NRF, said, “SFF x SWITCH brings out the best of both the Singapore FinTech Festival and the Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology. It is symbolic of Singapore’s national effort to integrate research, innovation and enterprise as an iterative, interactive ecosystem – so that each one will spur the others to greater heights, with the aim of improving lives in Singapore and globally. It will ensure that deep technologies born out of basic science research in Singapore will see impact via the right economic structures and business models, enabled by innovative financing modalities and payment systems. I look forward to seeing many more products and services being launched into the region and the world, from Singapore.”
14. SFF is organised by MAS, in partnership with The Association of Banks in Singapore, and in collaboration with SingEx Holdings. SWITCH is organised by Enterprise Singapore, NRF and Intellectual Property Intermediary (IPI) in partnership with SingEx.