China experts confirmed as speakers for Collab/Collide Summit

Two senior Chinese fintech experts have been confirmed as speakers for the Collab/Collide Summit, which begins on 2 November.Nina Zhou, a partner at the CreditEase Fintech Fund, will be giving an international keynote on the opening day of the conference, 2 November, followed by a fireside chat with FinTech Australia chair Simon Cant.CreditEase is a Beijing-based leading fintech conglomerate, specialising in inclusive finance and wealth management in addition to payment technology, marketplace lending, crowdfunding, robo-advisory, insurance technology, and blockchain products and services. CreditEase actively engages with global fintech innovators through business incubation, commercial cooperation and investment.In addition, Steven Ji from Sequoia Capital China will be speaking at the summit, also on 2 November. Mr Ji normally doesnt take part in interviews so this is a rare opportunity to hear first-hand about how a key Chinese venture capital firm views the Australian market.Sequoia has already invested in Australian fintechs Airwallex (international payments) and Hyper Anna (artificial intelligence). Sequoia is generally known for its investment in artificial intelligence companies and we expect Mr Ji will further elaborate on this strategy. Ms Zhou and Mr Jis presentations will be an rare opportunity to get new insights into Chinas booming fintech industry, including its links to Australia.The EY FinTech Adoption Index released in June 2017 found that China had the strongest fintech market penetration of any country in the world. Meanwhile, the 2nd Annual Asia-Pacific Alternative Finance Report released in June found that China accounted for 99.2% of the total Asia Pacific alternative finance market and an estimated 85% of the total global market in 2016 with US$243.28 billion raised in mainland China alone.

Nina Zhou (left) and Steven Ji (right)

In other news, weve also confirmed that Jurgen Ingels, the founder of Brussels-based B-Hive, will be taking part in a panel session on 3 November giving a health check on the Australian fintech ecosystem.B-Hive is a European collaborative innovation fintech platform that brings together major banks, insurers and market infrastructure players. The newly-confirmed international speakers come on top of an already-announced stellar line-up of speakers, including

• Anthony Thomson, founder of the UKs Metro and Atom Banks (and the current chairman of Atom Bank). Atom Bank is regarded as the first real alternative to the UKs traditional banks.
• Ron Suber, known as the godfather of fintech due to his extensive global business network along with his commitment to help grow the fintech industry. Mr Suber recently joined the leadership team at Credible, the multi-lender marketplace for student loans, after five years leading the growth and transformation of Silicon Valley based lender Prosper Marketplace.
• Megan Caywood, chief platform officer for the UKs mobile only Starling Bank, who has delivered a range of major customer experience improvements.
• Clara Durodie, Founder and CEO of the Cognitive Finance Group
• David Birch, recognised internationally as a thought leader in digital identity and digital money and author of Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin