How FinTech Olympiad helps university students turn innovative ideas into solutions with social and economic impact
- With support from HSBC, CityUʼs programme for students in the GBA offers a project-based competition in addition to networking opportunities
- Hong Kong-based PhD student Kyrie Luo won the gold medal at this yearʼs competition for Vision Carbon, a blockchain-based carbon-trading platform
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Meet the founder of carbon-trading start-up Vision Carbon, winner of FinTech Olympiad 2023
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For Kyrie Luo, a young Hong Kong-based innovator who is the gold medal winner of this yearʼs FinTech Olympiad, combining his passion for environmentalism with his interest in blockchain technology was the natural next step on his career path.
His aspirations are reflected in his background. Luo is not only a PhD candidate at the School of Energy and Environment at City University of Hong Kong, he is also the founder and CEO of Vision Carbon, a blockchain-based carbon-trading platform start-up established in 2022.
“I am a big fan of blockchain, so in the beginning I was just mining coins and tokens for my personal interest,” says Luo, who also has a keen interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and game finance, or GameFi. “Then I wanted to combine what I like and what I am good at. It is my responsibility, because I have the knowledge and the passion to leverage what I know into this space.”
Vision Carbon facilitates the sale of large-scale carbon credits through a blockchain-based e-commerce platform to multinational corporations and institutional investors in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). Luo points out that blockchain technology can offer several advantages over traditional carbon-trading platforms, such as instantaneous transactions and the ability to track every activity, thereby creating greater transparency. It can also eliminate the need for market intermediaries and their commission fees.
While Luoʼs personal bitcoin trading familiarised him with fintech, he had limited knowledge about running a start-up. It proved fortuitous, then, that his studies at CityU led him to meet the winner of last yearʼs FinTech Olympiad, who encouraged him to apply for a place in the annual programme.
With support from HSBC, the CityU-organised programme – recently renamed FinTech Trailblazers – is now in its fourth year. It is aimed at university students in cities across the GBA, with the last cohort seeing more than 1,400 such students enrolled.
Participants gain fintech knowledge through training and exchange sessions with industry experts. In addition, networking events organised by HSBC provide students with an opportunity to gain business insights from the bankʼs senior management executives.
Students in the programme can also opt to enter a project-based competition for tech-driven, innovative solutions that address societal needs and economic growth. HSBC volunteers are available to mentor participating teams, to help them improve their ideas and offer advice on how to pitch them to the judging panel. This yearʼs competition attracted 94 teams from 18 GBA universities.
In addition to giving participants a deeper understanding of fintech and its applications via technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, the FinTech Olympiad helps them develop the business and financial competencies needed to thrive in a competitive business environment.
As a young entrepreneur, Luo valued the opportunity to learn from mentors in key industries such as banking. He notes: “Building networks and learning from experts is very important for start-ups.”
Luo adds that his mentor, Aaron Tses, senior vice-president, innovation and growth, business banking, at HSBC, shared insights from both the business and client perspectives. “HSBC gave us a lot of great advice, such as the need to identify what makes our solution unique. It helped us to dig deeper to find a new way to pitch our idea and stand out from others.”
Participating in the FinTech Olympiad also provided Luo with a golden opportunity to promote his start-up to business leaders and fintech experts across different industries. Vision Carbon won the award for Best Cross-border FinTech Solution in the competition, in addition to the gold medal.
“We could reach out to potential customers through the competition; it was like a marketing tour for us,” Luo says, adding that it reaffirmed his belief in the future success of his start-up. “It felt great to be surrounded by a lot of talented people. FinTech Olympiad gave us a lot of confidence to continue on our journey.”
Charlotte Wong, chief information officer, Hong Kong, at HSBC, says the bank is committed to pushing forward fintech development that enables future generations to pave the way for careers in that field. “It is great to see how well this year’s participants across the GBA have applied innovative ideas to address real-life social needs.”