Revolutionising SME Banking through Fintech Partnerships
Great visions can come to life when fuelled by strong teamwork and collaboration. Just like the Avengers or the Justice League, banking and fintech superheroes are driving game-changing innovations when they unite.
We sat down with Adrien Barthel, Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of Sleek, and Medhy Souidi, Head of Fintech and Startup Xchange at DBS Hong Kong, to discuss their collaborative innovation journey and the importance of partnerships in building the future of banking.
Sleek has made the lives of many entrepreneurs, investors, and SMEs easier. Can you share how Sleek’s 100% online platform helps corporates and individuals kickstart and efficiently manage their businesses?
Adrien: We started our journey in 2017, when my co-founder Julien and I noticed that we were continuously facing a certain pain point — our company secretary and accounting providers were delivering poor quality service. We realised that this was because their technological tools were outdated, and they had long forgotten about the importance of listening to their clients. We thus decided to build our own platform to offer entrepreneurs an online alternative that would address the fundamental issues they would face at every point on their business journeys.
On Sleek, you can register a company within a single day (or transfer from your existing company secretary even more quickly) and manage all accounting and tax matters in an entirely paperless manner. We’ve also launched our financial audit desk in Hong Kong. Essentially, we address the full spectrum of entrepreneurs’ basic needs, so they can spend more time doing what they’re great at — building their business. We do their books and take care of the rest.
We currently manage a growing portfolio of 4,000+ companies, ranging from small solopreneurs to the subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies, as well as countless startups, SMEs and holdings.
How important are SMEs to the Hong Kong economy? What are some common hurdles that SMEs and corporates face when setting up bank accounts and managing their businesses?
Medhy: SMEs play an essential part in the Hong Kong economy. In total, there are over 340,000 SMEs which account for more than 98% of the entire business community in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a major international financial hub, integrating a sophisticated network of banks with effectively transparent regulations. It is, in fact, one of the top picks among foreigners as an offshore banking jurisdiction.
Yet many expatriates and non-residents, especially those with newly incorporated companies, often face difficulties when opening a bank account in Hong Kong. Common challenges include navigating the bureaucracy, having to attend in-person appointments, and going through the lengthy bank approval processes. Moreover, banks tend to use different criteria when evaluating the appropriateness of cases. This has made the traditional business account opening process for SMEs lengthy and tedious, taking longer than a month with numerous visits to bank branches.
With the current need for social distancing, it is critical to enable SMEs to open business accounts digitally. DBS Hong Kong is focused on addressing SME pain points to help businesses leverage technology to better access and manage their finances. With our latest innovative solutions, filling in online application forms is quick and easy and takes just 19 minutes. The fully digitalised and seamless account opening experience allows SMEs to manage their finances and expand their businesses nimbly amid the challenges presented by COVID-19.
As an ecosystem partner with DBS IBG Innovation & Digital, can you share more about your experience working with the bank?
Adrien: We have been collaborating with DBS for a while now. First as clients in Singapore, using their great online banking platform. Then, as business partners in both Singapore and Hong Kong, given that all of our clients need to open a bank account to start operating. We have started to write a new page in our partnership journey by working closely with the Innovation & Digital team. It’s truly been an inspiring and collaborative partnership journey so far — the team at DBS has been super open to discussion, often bringing innovative ideas to the table. It’s not every day that a tiny start-up can speak openly with a banking giant, so we really appreciate DBS’ faith in our capabilities and vision.
I think we can collectively agree that a bank’s future is to become a platform for its clients — providing multiple services based on their individual needs and increasing their lifetime value in a data-driven manner. At Sleek, we share that platform vision and look forward to driving new partnerships with DBS.
How has this partnership supported businesses and entrepreneurs with their account onboarding process?
Adrien: Entrepreneurs and SME owners who use our platform are looking for fully digitalised processes. The lack of digital onboarding solutions thus used to be a key challenge faced during bank account opening. When DBS reached out to us with their online account onboarding idea, we were super excited to see that traditional giants are now proactively building online processes. We have heard fantastic feedback about our onboarding solution so far, and we look forward to growing our operations and onboarding more clients.
What are some innovations/collaborations between Sleek and DBS that can we look forward to in the coming year?
Medhy: With many businesses struggling to stay afloat and overcome financial challenges amid Covid-19, DBS is fully committed to helping SMEs transform for a more resilient future. Innovating the way we serve, engage, and interact with customers enables them to benefit from a hassle-free and contact-free online banking experience. At DBS, we understand that it’s not easy for small companies to grind through the basic operations of running a business. Owners and employees spend a lot of time navigating separate banking platforms, enterprise resource planning, human resources and payments. Thus, the latest transformation of the SME customer journey represents a great leap forward for them and for DBS. We aim to continue driving the future of banking digitalisation with our partners, such as Sleek to help contain the sprawl by devising a simple, easy-to-use digital package that would integrate these functions.
Adrien: We have recently re-launched our new marketing partnership in Hong Kong, facilitating account opening for locally-based companies. This allows them to go through the diptych incorporation-bank accounting opening smoothly. We are also discussing with the Innovation & Digital team at DBS Hong Kong to see how we can build a more embedded experience for our clients, allowing them to open and manage their accounts more seamlessly.
Medhy: Indeed, this second approach with Sleek will consist of life-event ecosystems that capture broader needs, such as starting a business or international expansion.
Adrien: Nevertheless, we’re taking things one step at a time and focusing first on growing the number of accounts opened before expanding into new experiences.
As the fintech space continues to thrive, what are some growth opportunities within Hong Kong do you anticipate in the next five years?
Adrien: We see Hong Kong as a gateway to Asia. We are building our platform around this mantra, opening our services to anyone — whether they are based in Hong Kong, Jakarta or Berlin — by allowing them to start operating their Hong Kong entity and benefit from this city’s amazing business energy. On the fintech aspect of things, I believe that anything related to B2B banking in Hong Kong has a bright future ahead, given the quality of the playground and other players.
Medhy: As a well-established international financial centre and thriving hi-tech startup hub in the heart of Asia, Hong Kong is ideally placed to lead the rapid evolution of fintech. Within the rapid development of the fintech sector, virtual banking is gaining momentum around the world. Hong Kong is likely to drive the growth of virtual banking in Asia, with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority having granted eight virtual banking licences in 2019. This move is intended to spur innovation in Hong Kong’s financial services, as non-banking companies are now allowed to bring different business models and experience into the banking sector.
Digital currencies also present a major opportunity. China has started experimenting with its central bank digital currency (CBDC) in major cities, and the Greater Bay Area (GBA) will be one of the first testing grounds. CBDC will open the door to freer capital flows within the GBA in the long term, as it will allow regulatory authorities to monitor the flow of southbound capital.
Overall, DBS is excited to continue working with our partners to power more innovative and intuitive experiences and build the future of fintech and banking.
Dubbed “the entrepreneur’s operating system”, Sleek helps incorporate companies in Hong Kong and Singapore, helping them manage their governance, accounting and tax matters using technology. As an ecosystem partner with DBS IBG Innovation & Digital, Sleek works closely with DBS to co-create solutions for SMEs and corporates, leveraging technology to make banking smooth, seamless and intuitive.
