First Round Selections for the Tokyo Financial Award "Financial Innovation Category"
The "Financial Innovation Category" of the Tokyo Financial Award invited financial businesses to apply for “Solutions” to “Themes to be solved” which are based on the needs and challenges related to financial services which were submitted by residents and businesses in Tokyo.
The solutions submitted by applicants were examined in terms of consistency with the theme, innovativeness in technology and business model, and feasibility, among other factors.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, through EY as the contractor, will provide a support program to the 15 selected businesses listed below, in Japan and from overseas in order to help them brush up their work for the purpose of commercialization.
After the program, a final selection will take place, and the top three businesses will be announced at the award ceremony. 10 million yen, 5 million yen, 3 million yen will be awarded as prize money respectively to first place, second place, and third place applicants.
Japan-Based Businesses
Alterna Trust
Alterna Trust provides asset owners, including real estate owners, with an end-to-end service for structuring, managing, and selling digital securities backed by their assets, significantly reducing the time required for product structuring through Al.
EduCare
EduCare provides an education finance platform that leverages function such as future income prediction for students, enabling those facing financial burdens to access education loans and scholarship repayment services from financial institutions and corporations.
Henry
Henry provides factoring services that enable rapid screening and funding as a financing option for small and medium-sized hospitals, while also offering a management infrastructure equipped with features such as automated electronic medical billing.
Impact Circle
Impact Circle provides tools that enable the automatic generation of impact indicators for financial institutions and institutional investors requiring quantitative impact data, supporting the evaluation and selection of investment targets through rapid visualization of social impact.
Japan Asset Management Platform
Japan Asset Management Platform provides a comprehensive white-label* service covering ETF structuring, establishment, and operational management. This allows asset management companies considering the development and launch of ETFs to focus on high-value activities such as investment decision-making and portfolio management. *A business strategy in which core infrastructure is provided by one company, while the participating firm offers the product to investors under its own brand.
MynaWallet
MynaWallet adds a payment function using stablecoins1 and other digital assets to the Individual Number Card2, providing a new payment method while also offering implementation support for both businesses and consumers. *1 An electronic payment method that utilizes blockchain, designed to maintain a stable value and backed by assets such as FIAT. *2 An individual-number ID card issued by Japanese municipalities, usable as an official ID for online administrative procedures and diverse private sector transactions.
Recept
Recept enhances its existing certificate digitization service by adding a digital wallet application function, enabling the collection and centralized management of consumer data across multiple services. The aggregated consumer behavior data is then offered for sale to municipalities and other relevant entities.
SBI Securities
SBI Securities, along with Tokio Marine Asset Management Co., Ltd., Shinsei Trust & Banking Co., Ltd., and BOOSTRY Co., Ltd., have jointly structured a publicly offered digital security designed for individual investors, enabling small-lot, diversified investments across multiple domestic private equity (PE) funds, aiming to provide new sources of risk capital to Japan's PE market by opening access—previously limited to qualified institutional investors—to individuals who are able to tolerate a certain level of risk.
Soramitsu CBDC
Soramitsu CBDC provides a blockchain-based digital platform that enables foreign visitors, international students, migrant workers, and small to medium-sized enterprises in Tokyo to seamlessly convert various CBDCs into Japanese yen, offering integrated services for domestic and cross-border payments, remittances, and trade finance.
YOUR RIGHTS
YOUR RIGHTS provides a platform that fractionalizes and sells partial copyrights of anime works as NFTs, granting purchasers the right to participate in production decisions through voting and to receive a share of viewing revenues, while enabling production studios to secure funding such as production costs in advance.
International Businesses
Clarity AI
Clarity AI provides institutional investors with an AI-driven tool that enables evaluation, analysis, and reporting of the sustainability of investment targets, visualizing sustainability assessments while ensuring compliance regulations in multiple countries.
Moroku
Moroku (Australia) provides financial institutions with a digital banking platform that leverages gamification* and personalization, enhancing customer engagement through the services they experience. *The application of game elements in non-game contexts (such as business) for purposes including motivation enhancement.
Plutas Analytics
Plutas Analytics (India) provides insurance companies with real-time climate and environmental data, along with an AI-powered digital platform for operating parametric insurance* related to weather and environmental risks, empowering insurance companies & individuals and enabling swift claim settlements. *Insurance that pays out a predetermined fixed amount promptly when the conditions set at the time of contract are met.
PolicyStreet
PolicyStreet (Malaysia) contributes to labor stability by customizing, reinsuring, and distributing insurance products covering accidents, medical care, and income protection, which gig workers* can be automatically enrolled in through platform providers or service operators that engage gig workers. *A worker who takes on one-off jobs through an online platform.
Xpansiv
Xpansiv (Australia) operates one of the world's largest digital platforms for carbon credits, primarily covering North America, Australia, and Europe, and, through its partnership with enechain, provides Japanese customers with access to the international carbon credit market via JCEX.
Norbert Gehrke
