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Brisbane cybersecurity company beats worldwide competition to be named 2017 FinTech Startup of the Year in Hong Kong

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A Brisbane-based cyber security provider to the fintech industry has beaten companies from around the world to be named 2017 FinTech Startup of the Year in Hong Kong.

The accolade was given to Entersoft on 29 January at the FinTech Awards, which are backed by two major Hong Kong fintech and innovation hubs. This is the company’s third major award win in as many years. At the award ceremony at the Island Shangri-La Hotel, Entersoft was also named as the Outstanding Application Security Solutions Provider.

This is not the first time that Entersoft has achieved success in Hong Kong. In March 2017, it was the only Australian representative out of eight finalists selected to be part of the SuperCharger accelerator program held in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong award also follows two other Australian award wins for Entersoft since 2016. Entersoft received the award for Excellence in Cyber Security at the Australian Finnie awards in May 2017. The Finnie awards are organised by Australia’s fintech industry association, FinTech Australia.

The company was also recognised as having the Best Innovation in Cyber Security & Anti Fraud at the Australian FinTech Awards in 2016.  Entersoft is based in Brisbane with offices in Singapore and Bangalore.

Working in ICOs and crypto exchanges

Entersoft has worked with more than 100 fintech clients around the world. This includes helping around 20 clients who have raised over USD$100 million through initial coin offerings (ICOs), and by securing crypto exchanges, in countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel and Australia.

The Entersoft difference is that it works to build a security-conscious culture and practice within an organisation, usually by engaging with an organisation’s leadership and driving security through developers.

This sets it apart from other cyber security firms, which typically simply try to deal with the symptoms of a poor security infrastructure through tactical testing and compliance needs. Entersoft complements this strategic approach with innovative online and person-to-person security testing and bug fixes.

It employs “white hat” hackers, some with ex-military intelligence backgrounds, who use their collective 40 years’ of experience to penetrate, and find out the vulnerabilities, of an organisation’s online systems.

Entersoft CEO and co-founder Mohan Gandhi said the Hong Kong awards were an important recognition of his company’s work in the fintech industry. “With the increase in data flows between financial institutions and their customers, and the rise of innovative new platforms such as blockchain, fintech firms are a premium target for hackers,” Mr Gandhi said.

“We are finding the hacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and therefore we work to ingrain a strong cyber security culture and practice into our clients.

“We were very excited to be named as FinTech Startup of the Year at this award ceremony. We think this outcome provides strong recognition and validation of our work and believe it will help us with our ongoing expansion, particularly into Asia.”

The FinTech Awards were organised by ET Net, a professional financial information platform. The awards were co-organised by Cyberport, a prominent fintech hub in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation.

This was the first year the awards were held. The evening saw over 40 startups win awards across several categories in fintech including banking, insurance, web security, credit, e-payments, trading systems, cash flow, colleges and wealth investment & management.

Startups shortlisted for the award categories were judged on the following criteria:

  • Innovation & creativity
  • Functionality
  • Impact
  • Marketability
  • Benefits