Maybank, Malaysia’s largest financial services group has teamed up with 1337 Ventures and has invited early stage startups across SEA to pitch their Fintech ideas. Ideas will be scoped against challenges & opportunities within the banking and finance industry. Participants can start submitting their fintech ideas anytime from now till the closing date (29th May 2015) or during the Ignite sessions if we are in your city. Applications must be in the form of a 1-min video pitch of your app idea.

20 of the top FinTech ideas submitted will then be invited to attend the famous Alpha Startups pre-accelerator programme which will have key partners from 1337 Ventures and Maybank to guide the startups in validating and refining the idea from Customer and Product Development and Go to Market strategies.

The third stage is for pitching Fintech ideas to top Maybank executives and VCs from the region. The top idea(s) will be given the chance to pilot their ideas within Maybank. The onboarding and piloting phase may take up to 3 months. The teams will be required to work closely with Maybank’s team in Kuala Lumpur.

“Maybank is excited to be running this event. We want to be a central member of the Fintech community in the region, to help grow and support entrepreneurs, by providing them with a platform to connect directly with the financial industry,” said Amran Hassan, Head of Corporate Development & Innovation, office of the Group President & CEO in a press release.

“Starting with this event, we hope to create an on-going dialog between us, the financial industry and the many entrepreneurs out there. There  is much to learn from each other,” he said.

The 1337-Maybank initiative isn’t the only fintech startup program in the region. Startupbootcamp, a prominent startup accelerator in Europe, will launch its own fintech bootcamp in May, offering S$24,500 (US$18,000) in financial support along with networking and mentorship.

(image credit: yeowatzup)