Science Park Companies Fano Labs and InnoBlock Win at HKMA’s Global Regtech Challenge Highlight Hong Kong’s Growing Regtech Strength

Photo 1: Dr Miles Wen, co-founder and CEO of Fano Labs

Photo 2: Kevin Ng, CEO of InnoBlock

(Hong Kong, 23 July 2021) – Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) proudly announced that Park companies Fano Labs and InnoBlock have triumphed at the recent Global Regtech Challenge, organised by The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). AI startup Fano Labs won in the Conduct and Customer Protection category, while AI and blockchain startup InnoBlock was selected as runner up in the Customer Data Privacy category.

Albert Wong, CEO of HKSTP said: “The success of our startups Fano Labs and InnoBlock is proof of Hong Kong’s Regtech innovation potential and our growing status as a global Regtech hub. The winning solutions are just a sample of the significant wealth of innovation emerging from HKSTP’s ecosystem of deeptech-driven fintech companies, creating a pipeline of impactful innovation and powering Hong Kong’s financial sector.”

Fano Labs, a Hong Kong-based AI provider specialising in speech and natural language processing technologies, triumphed as the best solution in Banking Conduct and Customer Protection. Its AI technology, specifically the Callinter product, is used to automatically analyse multilingual and mixed language (Cantonese, Mandarin, and English) conversations between a relationship manager and a customer, to help identify potential regulatory breaches, suspicious activities and business insight.

“With HKMA’s two-year roadmap to promote Regtech adoption and the Fintech 2025 strategy, we are seeing a golden opportunity of growth for Fano Labs. Our technologies have been adopted by several of the largest international banks and regulators in the region. We look forward to engaging with our partners to work towards the FinTech 2025 goal and make Hong Kong a leading global hub for developing Regtech,” said Dr Miles Wen, co-founder and CEO of Fano Labs.

While AI and blockchain technology provider, InnoBlock was selected as runner-up for Customer Data Privacy category at the Global Regtech Challenge. Its SafeGuard Series is a comprehensive cybersecurity solution that tackles both internal and external threats by integrating facial recognition, object detection and blockchain technologies.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank HKMA and KPMG for organising and supporting such a meaningful Global Regtech Challenge. This award is of huge importance to us is like a shot in the arm for all young companies and startups like us in developing innovative solutions for the fintech and Regtech industries,” said Kevin Ng, CEO of InnoBlock.

HMKA launched the challenge to raise the Hong Kong banking industry’s awareness of the potential of Regtech adoption. The competition drew over 80 submissions from 15 jurisdictions and four continents. The two HKSTP startups beat out Regtech providers from around the world, who were invited to showcase applications in solving common risk management and regulatory compliance pain points experienced by banks, including governance, risk and compliance; conduct and customer protection; customer data privacy; and risk management.