'Pinovation Challenge' Seoul Mayor's Award Goes to Subscription Payment Service 'StepPay'

Seoul City-Shinhan Card Collaborate on Commercializing Fintech Innovation Technologies
Top 3 Awarded Companies to Collaborate with Shinhan Card for Technology Service Commercialization... Support for Overseas Expansion and Investment Attraction Provided

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government has selected three final winning companies in the Pinovation Challenge, held for the first time this year to discover and nurture promising fintech startups.

According to Seoul City on the 18th, the winning companies of this challenge are StepPay, a subscription payment software service company (Seoul Mayor's Award); Pinzle, a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace company (Shinhan Card Award); and ATR, a carbon emission data solution company (Pinovation Award). The challenge, launched for the first time this year, is a compound word of fintech and open innovation, focusing on fostering the fintech industry. Seoul City, aiming for sustainable rather than short-term growth, collaborates with financial institutions to discover promising fintech innovation companies and provide open innovation opportunities through a joint project to nurture 'pre-unicorn fintech companies.'

At the awards ceremony held the previous day, StepPay, the subscription payment software service (SaaS) company that received the Seoul Mayor's Award, was awarded a business support fund of 20 million KRW; Pinzle, the NFT marketplace that won the Shinhan Card Award, received 10 million KRW; and ATR, the carbon data company, was awarded 5 million KRW. All three companies earned the right to move into Seoul Fintech Lab, the largest fintech incubator in Korea.

StepPay is a subscription payment software service (SaaS) company currently building online and offline channels for small business owners in partnership with Shinhan Card. Pinzle, the NFT marketplace awarded the Shinhan Card Award, is collaborating on NFTs and the metaverse, while ATR, the Pinovation Award winner, plans to launch a service in December that visualizes carbon emissions based on Shinhan Card payment data.

Going forward, the three winning companies will receive the same startup nurturing program support as existing Seoul Fintech Lab resident companies and will also benefit from overseas expansion support and other advantages through Shinhan Futures Lab. Mentoring and collaboration with Shinhan Card’s business departments currently underway will continue as well.

Hwang Bo-yeon, Director of Seoul City’s Economic Policy Office, stated, "We will continue to diversify opportunities and touchpoints for open innovation so that fintech startups can establish a foundation for growth through open innovation, creating practical cooperation platforms with traditional financial companies and large corporations." He added, "Based on this, we will support sustainable nurturing so that fintech companies leading the future financial market can emerge."