Two leading technology providers signed a cooperation agreement in Shenzhen today. OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. (“OneConnect”), an affiliate of Ping An Insurance Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter “Ping An” or the “Group” or the “Company”, HKEX: 2318; SSE: 601318), will offer its fintech software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology to the European market through finleap connect, the fintech SaaS provider of Europe’s leading fintech ecosystem, finleap.
Based in Shanghai, OneConnect is a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions, based on world-class technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud computing, and biometrics identification. OneConnect has offices in Singapore and Jakarta.
finleap connect is a business unit of finleap, Europe’s leading fintech ecosystem, based in Berlin and with offices in Milan, Paris and Madrid. finleap offers fintech SaaS solutions to various enterprises and builds stand-alone fintech companies. Founded in 2014 by IONIQ Group and Ramin Niroumand, finleap has already developed 16 ventures with its infrastructure and added others by acquisition to its ecosystem. Companies range from a digital insurance broker to a fully licensed bank.
Dr. Carolin Gabor, Chief Commercial Officer and finleap Partner said: “We are impressed by OneConnect’s technical capabilities and deep understanding of digital transformation in financial services. Asia is clearly at the forefront here; you won’t find that level of maturity in European technology. We are pleased to use OneConnect’s solutions in the European market to offer superior products and services with finleap connect to our ecosystem and partners.”
Ye Wangchun, Chairman of OneConnect, said: “We are honored and excited to team up with finleap in this new partnership, which is the first of its kind in the fintech industry. OneConnect will provide finleap with its innovative enterprise technology solutions in AI, blockchain, cloud and biometrics identification to companies in Europe using finleap.”
Examples of the OneConnect technologies include Optical Character Recognition (OCR), voice recognition and scoring algorithms. Bi Wei, CEO of OneConnect Insurance Division, said: “These technologies radically shorten the identification time of the customer. They enable fast and easy insurance or credit applications as well as risk-based decisions in seconds. This leads to much faster and more convenient customer experience, reduces process costs and provides better risk management.”
finleap connect, as a fintech SaaS provider, will offer these products to its customers in Europe by integrating them into its products and go-to-market ventures, which they will develop together with leading companies in financial services and beyond. As a German-regulated company, all processes are in compliance with German and European standards.
For OneConnect, the partnership holds great potential. This is the first time OneConnect has entered the European market as a strategic partner. In November 2018, the Ping An Group invested a total of EUR 41.5 million in finleap through its Ping An Global Voyager Fund.
Jonathan Larsen, Ping An Group Chief Innovation Officer said: “In finleap, we have found a powerful and like-minded partner. We believe both their existing and new businesses will provide an excellent platform for deploying Ping Technologies in Europe. We look forward to a long and fruitful cooperation.”