KB Financial Group tapped as a main mentor for fintech startups in South Korea

Today the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it will select finalists to compete for the 16 startup spots available in the Public-Private Cooperation ICT Startup Promotion Project. Notably, KB Financial Group announced that it would serve as a mentor for fintech startups in the project by offering collaboration with affiliated banks, credit cards, and securities agencies.

The program was first publicly announced by the Ministry of Science and ICT in May of this year. The main goal of the project is to help startups innovate blockchain technology for use in public services and privately-led national-level tech projects over the next 3 years. The hope is that under this innovation project, the demand for blockchain technology will rise across the public and private industry sectors.

KB Financial Group’s deep involvement in the project shows a concerted commitment to fintech development in the country. Of late, the Korean government has shared a strong sentiment towards how society will function in a post-Corona world where non-face-to-face interactions will become the norm rather than the exception.

In addition to KB Financial group, nine other large companies have joined the ministry’s project. Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, KT, Lotte, Hanhwa Life Insurance, Shinhan Financial, Hana financial, and NH Financial have committed to the success of startups that run through the project.

The government will provide a modest R&D grant to participating startups in the project. They will give $166k per year over the next three years to participants which although seems like a negligible sum in light of other multi-million dollar tech and blockchain startups since 2017, participants will have direct access to the expertise and networks of the large mentor companies. That mentorship is potentially invaluable as fintech startups begin to test the financial waters.

KB Financial Group outlined a goal to create a blockchain-based efficient overseas payment network. Such a network would match well with one of the potential finalists for selection in the project, Moin. Moin, a payment settlement service that currently uses Ripple’s xCurrent for some overseas payment services is also a member of the KB Innovation Hub and KB Financial Group’s fintech lab. It is expected that if Moin makes the cut, they will be fast-tracked to work with KB Financial Group to complete the blockchain-based overseas payment network.

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