PayPal brings its fintech incubation program to Singapore

Image credit: Tech in Asia’s Andre Gunawan.

PayPal is getting in the startup incubation game in Singapore, rather unsurprisingly in the fintech space.

The nine-month-long incubation program is called Start Tank and will be housed in PayPal’s Technology Center at Singapore’s Suntec City office tower complex. The company today put out a call for interested startups to apply.

PayPal will give startups access to funding through its VC connections.

The submission deadline is May 25 and shortlisted startups will be notified by May 27. They will get the chance to pitch at an event on June 2, with the winners entering the program a few days later on June 6.

Eligible fintech startups must have a minimum viable product and early trial with customers. They should have raised seed funding, and be based in Singapore or willing to relocate here.

As part of the program, startups will receive coaching and mentoring by PayPal executives and by third-party business and technical experts. Participants will learn about finance and technology essentials like risk, compliance, core payment network, channel partnering, and more.

PayPal won’t invest in the startups itself, but it will give them access to funding through its venture capital connections.

Startups will be judged in terms of how capable the team is and its background; its market size and how scalable the business is; how innovative and competitive its tech is; and early traction and market viability.

Start Tank has already been running in Chennai, India since 2013. Singapore is the second country in Asia-Pacific to host the program.

(Update, 17:45: A previous version of this story erroneously mentioned that Start Tank is also running in London. This has been corrected.)

See: Meet the newest 4 fintech whizkids in PayPal’s incubator