IESE has been chosen by Cyberport, a Hong Kong digital technology hub, to provide training to university students who are on the path toward becoming fintech entrepreneurs.
Under the agreement, IESE delivered a nine-day online boot camp to the university students from Jan. 7-15, 2021. Apart from fintech knowledge, IESE professors covered areas such as a global mindset, general approaches to management, a people-centric vision and the social responsibility of companies.
The boot camp — normally delivered as an in-person study abroad module — forms part of the Cyberport University Partnership Programme (CUPP), which is in its sixth year. This year, a total of 73 students from seven local universities are taking part in the program – a 25% increase over the previous year and a record number of participants.
The CUPP is aimed at cultivating new fintech talent for Hong Kong. Since its launch in 2015, it has provided fintech training for over 300 local university students, reinforcing their entrepreneurial knowledge and spirit.
At the end of the process, students will pitch a fintech project and 10 winning proposals will receive grants of HK$ 100,000 each, for a total of HK$ 1 million in funding.
Students refine proposals
In this year’s CUPP, students are organized into 20 teams. Each team produces a preliminary fintech business proposal at the start of the program, which it refines based on the knowledge acquired from the boot camp and other training sessions.
Over the past six months, Cyberport has arranged six pre-camp nurturing sessions to provide fundamental knowledge on fintech and blockchain. Hong Kong financial regulatory organizations such as the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Insurance Authority offered sessions, as did industry experts such as R3 and WeBank.
From IESE, Luca Venza of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center coordinated the boot camp and provided training. Professors Thomas Klueter and Pietro Bonetti delivered classes during the nine-day program.