All you need to know about the upcoming Vizag Fintech Festival

Fintech Valley Vizag is Government of Andhra Pradesh’s flagship initiative that brings together industry, academia and investors to innovate, co-create and build the Fintech ecosystem. The Vizag Fintech Festival marks the next leg of the journey, after Blockchain Business Conference – October 2017 and Fintech Spring Conference – March 2017.

The Vizag Fintech Festival 2018 is poised to be the nation’s largest Financial Technology event. The week-long event will take place from October 22nd-26th, in the city of Vizag, also known as India’s Fintech Valley. Hosting over 2000 attendees including decision makers and investors from the Global Fintech fraternity, the event is considered by the Indian Fintech community as the largest platform to explore opportunities, innovation and partnerships.

The five-day festival will focus on BankTech, InsurTech, GovTech, Financial Inclusion and EmergeTech. The conference will host an exclusive group of leading corporates, startups, academia and regulators from around the globe who will meet up and explore how these technologies will impact the future.

Festival Highlights:

CxO Golf Tournament (22^nd October, 6 am – 12 pm)

Fintech Honchos will make Golf not just a sport but also a platform where business in Fintech and pleasure would go hand in hand. This signature event will attract over 40+ CXOs at an exclusive and prestigious networking event at East Point Golf Club, Visakhapatnam.

Opening Bash (22^nd October, 6 pm)

A cultural performance by artists from the US would be performing a fusion of Kuchipudi dance with a contemporary theme. The dance theme would be based on a storyline based on various topics such as eve-teasing, domestic violence and treatment of women in public. The cultural performance will be followed by dinner.

CxO Roundtable with Hon’ble Chief Minister and IT Minister (23^rd October, 8 am)

The CXO Roundtable with the Hon’ Chief Minister and Hon’ IT Minister would be held on Day 1 of the conference with CXOs from all around the world in which industry leaders, bankers, regulators, government officials would deliberate on the different facets of Fintech adoption.

2-day Conference (Oct 23^rd – 24^th)

The Vizag Fintech festival main conference would be held at Hotel Novotel, Visakhapatnam and it would include various keynote sessions, roundtables, panel discussions, exhibitors and so on. Networking receptions keep the interaction going and continue the day’s conversations in a relaxed environment. Attendees, speakers and exhibitors enjoy the opportunity to network with colleagues, meet new people, talk about pressing issues, share ideas and solutions and create lasting connections with people from industry at four networking receptions.

75+ Renowned Speakers, 2000+ Delegates, 20+ Knowledge sessions, Representation from 15+ countries, 25+ international speakers

• 5 Keynote Addresses
• 12 Panel Discussions
• 3 Case Study Presentations
• 5 Roundtable Discussions
• 50+ Start-up Exhibitions
• 10+ MOUs and Announcements

$ 1 Million Challenge and Demo Day (25^th Oct)

Fintech Valley Vizag conducted $1Mn Challenge as part of Vizag Fintech Festival to enable startups to showcase their solutions and get a chance to win upto $1Mn in funding and set up their office in Vizag. Applications were invited from start-ups in three tracks – AgriTech, EmergeTech and FinTech. Roadshows were conducted in 8 locations – Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Paris, London and Bangalore.

A total of 1000+ applications were received from across the globe. A carefully chosen panel of experts and jury from the startup ecosystem of every location scored the startups based on their Business Model, IP, team and willingness to set up their office in Vizag post the event.

Over 180 start-ups pitched across locations and 40 finalists were selected to pitch their startup at the Vizag Fintech Festival Finals. $1Mn Challenge winners will be announced at the Demo Day & Awards ceremony that is to be held on Oct 25th, 2018 at Hotel Novotel, Visakhapatnam.

Finathon – Student Hackathon

Student Hackathon to identify promising programming and technology talent across colleges is being conducted as part of the Festival. The preliminary screening conducted from Oct 16^th -17^th with 400+ teams and 1200+ students across 23 colleges from across the state. 50 teams will be selected for final 30-hour Hackathon on Oct 21-22 in Vizag. Three final winners will be selected and awarded prize money, 1^st – Rs. 2 lakhs; 2^nd – Rs. 1 lakh and 3^rd – Rs. 50,000.

Profile of Speakers and Attendees

The Hon’ CM of Andhra Pradesh, would kickstart the Vizag Fintech Festival. Sophia, the world’s first humanoid robot, with Saudi Arabian citizenship, would interact with the Hon’ Chief Minister and discuss the nuances of Fintech adoption in India. Other prominent speakers include Mr Madnesh Kumar Mishra, IAS, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Government of India; Raj Kiran Rai, Chairman, Union Bank of India and Mr RS Sharma, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Prominent International speakers include Chris Bates, Secretary, Bitland Global; David Soto, President, Government Blockchain Association in Lima; Lynne Laube, COO & CO-Founder, Cardlytics; Will Pritchett, Global Lead for InsurTech, KPMG, London; Uzi Scheffer, CEO, SOSA.

The CxOs present at the event represent organisations like BAXIS Sub-K iTransactions Ltd, Burnmark, Belfrics, Athena Dynamics, Vphrase, Infobridge Holdings, Kotak Mahindra, Paisabazaar.com, SOSA, Blocktrust, Whub, , Anthill Ventures, TrueCerts, The Digital Fifth, The Digital Fifth, Capital Float, Knolskape, Flipkart, Yourstory, HDFC, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo etc.

Festival also plays host to Bank Chairmen and Executive Directors like R Chandrashekhar (Yes Bank), Girija Kumar (Oriental Insurance), Gopal Singh Gusain (Union Bank), Smita Bhagat (HDFC), Deepak Sharma (Kotak Mahindra) and many more.

About Fintech Valley Vizag

The Fintech Valley in Vizag is a self-sustainable global Fintech Ecosystem that focuses on converging finance and technology to create large avenues of growth through industry-enablers, world-class infrastructure, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Global financial services companies, government and academia come together in this valley to build capacity, infrastructure, market access, connectivity, funding channels, and incentive mechanisms to achieve unmatched business goals and successes. Start-ups, financial Institutions, technology vendors, incubators/accelerators/innovation labs, and investors simultaneously contribute to and thrive in this ecosystem at the speed of business.