Krung Thai Bank (KTB) today announced a partnership with Plug and Play, a global startup accelerator and corporate innovation platform headquartered in Silicon Valley.  KTB will be a Founding Anchor Partner of Plug and Play's Fintech program in Singapore in order to partner, pilot, and collaborate with emerging Fintech startups. This will allow KTB to develop new products and technologies for the finance sector. 

"As the first Thai bank partnering with Plug and Play, this is an important step in KTB's strategy to become digitally advanced through financial innovation with startups and working with other financial industry stakeholders. These partners can help KTB nurture startups and build the company through the continuous pursuit of innovation. It encourages constructive thinking and sustainable business building, and allows startups to connect and partner with a global powerhouse", says Mr. Payong Srivanich, President and CEO of Krung Thai Bank.

Mr. Srivanich also revealed that, as the state-owned commercial bank, Krung Thai Bank plays a vital role in the government's plans to make Thailand a cashless society by establishing and implementing a national e-payment system. On top of that, Krung Thai Bank will actively incubate and support technology startups and entrepreneurs through a new initiative called "Future Banking", which aims to transform Krung Thai Bank into a digital bank by investing over ten billion Baht in technology development this year. A new innovation business unit called "Business Innovation LAB" has been created to learn, develop, and apply digital innovation to improve systems, elevate human resources and create financial products to satisfy customers in five ecosystems consisting of Government, Health and Medical, University and Education, Mass Transit and Payment. Finally, Krung Thai Bank will lead the 3 billion Baht Thai Government Venture Capital Fund to encourage technology adoption among Thai enterprises. 

"Based on the success of our stage-agnostic and multi-corporate innovation platforms in Silicon Valley, California, we are excited to extend this model to Singapore, providing proximity to many of our existing and prospective corporate partners in the financial and insurance sector. In the last few months, we launched our Fintech and Insurtech platform and have engaged with several leading financial and insurance institutions. Partnering with KTB is a great start to our journey and we look forward to connecting them to our global startup ecosystem," says Jupe Tan, Managing Partner, Plug and Play Asia Pacific. 

Plug and Play has recently launched a Fintech and Insurtech innovation platform in Singapore. The primary objectives of this innovation platform are to invest in and help local and international Fintech and Insurtech startups grow through connecting them to major financial institutions and insurers. By introducing and facilitating connections to their global startup ecosystem, Plug and Play plans to spearhead corporate innovation and transformation for its corporate partners.