Andhra Pradesh Inks Pact with LATTICE 80 in Smart City

The MoU was inked at the two-day Fintech Startup Challenge which began here.
Speaking after MOU here on the Occasion ,Special Chief Secretary and Adviser to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister on IT JA Chowdary said that the state Government was not merely trying to create the right eco-system for promoting fintech, but also aimed to develop a whole fintech culture.

“It wants to conduct a series of events to promote fintech in the city and the State. LATTICE 80 will help the Government in the Endeavor,” he said.

He also said the two mega events are planned for the city. A major conference on October 9 and 10 on block chain technology and another mega event on February 19 and 20 in 2018 would be held. The latter would see one-million dollar challenge for global companies and Rs one-crore challenge for the Indian companies in the fintech sector.
Mr. Chowdary was glad that 150 startups, several of them from abroad, were participating in the FinTech Startup Challenge. A 20-member Singapore team arrived here and two more teams from Switzerland and Japan are also participating in the event.

He said that 15 more MoUs were being signed by the AP Government with different fintech companies to launch operations in the State. “We have already signed pacts with Visa, Thomson Reuters and other major companies to launch operations in the Fintech Valley here. PayTM has already started operations,” he added.
The CEO of LATTICE 80 Joe Senughyun Cho said the AP State Government had rightly identified fintech as the most promising area and his company was happy to partner with AP Government in developing Vizag Smart City as a major fintech hub.

The startups have registered matured product solutions as well as innovative prototypes, appointed by the State Government as the consultant for fintech promotion in the city and the State.
According to KPMG officials, the State Government has collaborated with banking and financial institutions such as ICICI Bank, ICICI Lombard, HDFC Life, Bharti AXA Life and Angel Broking to launch the AP fintech Valley Startup Challenge-2017.

The event conducted to power Visakhapatnam as a national and global hub for fintech. "We want startups, entrepreneurs, innovators and developers around the globe to view Vizag as the hot destination for fintech," he said.
He also said the main objective for launching the challenge is "to get the best minds across the globe associated with AP fintech Valley and set the platform to create a self-sustainable global fintech ecosystem in Visakhapatnam Smart City to focus on converging finance and technology to create large avenues of growth."
Prize money A sum of Rs. 15 lakh will be awarded to three winners across banking, capital markets and insurance categories (Rs. 5 lakh per winner) for the best entries.
The winner in each category will be given an opportunity to open the development centre in the city. They will also get access to free space for at least a period of six months.

KPMG officials say the fin tech Spring Conference will be a stepping stone towards creating a robust ecosystem in the city. The event will focus on financial inclusion, cashless economy, rise of emerging technologies, digital India, access to skills and business support to fintech startups.

Around 100 companies from within the country and abroad participated in the event.