The Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) 2023 marked a milestone with the introduction of the “Open Source Pavilion,” a collaborative effort between the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the SEGA program, and PingCAP, the company behind TiDB. This initiative showcased the pivotal role of open-source technology in shaping the future of the financial sector.
From 15 to 17 November, the pavilion in Hall 3 featured a diverse range of open-source enterprises, including PingCAP, API7.ai, ByConity, StreamNative, and ThreatBook. This lineup demonstrated open-source solutions’ versatility and growing impact on FinTech.
The event’s highlight was the visit of Deputy Prime Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat, alongside Alvinder Singh, Deputy Director of MAS, on 17 November. Representing PingCAP, Davis Zhu, SVP and GM of APAC, led a discussion on how open-source technology fosters Singapore’s leadership on FinTech innovation in a resilient way. He emphasized the importance of scalable, trustworthy, and agile data infrastructures like TiDB in the AI era as well as the need to help develop local talents on infrastructure technologies.
Aligned with Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative, the pavilion went beyond technological displays, focusing on the intersection of open-source technology and AI. This emphasis extended to nurturing talent and creating a safe, open and innovative environment for these technologies.
PingCAP’s session was a standout event, led by Zac Lin, Head of Business Development and Partnerships, APAC at PingCAP. His keynote, “Database Scalability in a World with GenAI,” addressed the challenges of database scaling in the GenAI era. The session offered valuable strategies for managing vast data volumes and maintaining high-performance database systems. True to PingCAP’s mission of empowering every engineer and enterprise to innovate with speed, agility and scale, they announced a free powerful database tier for all developers to start their GenAI ambitions.
Following the keynote, a panel titled “Open Source Dialogue: Charting the Future of FinTech with Data Ecosystems and AI” took place. Liu Yang, Professor and Director of the Cybersecurity Lab at Nanyang Technological University and co-founder of MetaTrust & Scantist, moderated the session. Panelists included Davis Zhu (SVP & GM, APAC, PingCAP), Sijie Guo (Founder & CEO, StreamNative), Kevin Fang (Senior Manager, ByConity), and Chase Li (Co-founder, ThreatBook). They discussed the significant role of open source in revolutionizing FinTech, particularly in Singapore, underscoring the crucial interplay of AI, data ecosystems, open source, and cloud technologies as key to the sector’s growth and innovation. A key takeaway from the discussion was the importance of an “all in one & real-time data service platform” for the future of FinTech. This is especially relevant in the burgeoning Agent economy, which is increasingly powered by GenAI.
The Open Source Pavilion at SFF 2023 was a beacon of collaboration and progressive thinking in the FinTech arena in Singapore. Reflecting on this event’s success, we anticipate a bright future for open-source innovation in shaping tomorrow’s financial landscape.
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