ENTR 3100.

SmartSpend

Our Story

Inspired by China’s "silver economy," we specifically aim to help elderly populations use their accumulated wealth more effectively. Many older adults save significant portions of their income—up to 30% in regions like China—but often lack guidance on how to spend it optimally. The core idea of our initiative is to shift the perception of banks from mere places for saving money to institutions that empower customers to spend wisely. Our service offers personalized rewards and offers based on individual spending patterns, allowing users to maximize the value of their money. While our app is designed for the mass market, our focus on aiding the elderly reflects our commitment to helping them make smarter spending decisions, ultimately enabling them to achieve more from their hard-earned wealth.

Meet the Team

  • A woman with short black hair smiling in a lush indoor garden or greenhouse surrounded by green plants.

    Oliver Ho Fung Kok

    Co-Founder & CEO

  • A man with glasses and a nose ring sitting indoors, wearing a dark green sweater, with a blurred background and a plant to the right.

    Stephanie Cheuk Ying Chan

    Co-Founder & CSO

  • A smiling young woman with curly hair, glasses, hoop earrings, and layered necklaces, wearing a striped shirt, indoors with natural light

    Jasmine Hin Yan Chu

    Co-Founder & CMO

  • A young woman with shoulder-length black hair smiling and showing her teeth, standing among green plants.

    Abdullah Kabeer

    Co-Founder & CFO

  • A man with curly dark hair, glasses, and a beard, wearing a black sweater, looking thoughtfully to the side indoors near a plant.

    Kassie Keuk

    Co-Founder & CTO

  • A woman with curly black hair, glasses, and earrings smiling indoors.

    Du Long Phung

    Co-Founder & COO

HSBC SMARTSPEND

Combining AI to deliver personalised concierge service to the everyday consumer

  • Large text size, voice guidance, high contrast mode are just some of the many features that make this app elderly friendly

  • Chat with AI to get a better understanding of possible rewards, new spending habits or setting any financial goals

  • The most valuable insights immediately: spending status, goal progress, and personalised offers

  • Make savings to achieve different goals whilst using AI powered recommendations to uphold your quality of life.

  • See where you have spent, how much you have spent and how you could have spent smarter

How might we empower individuals aged 55 and above to confidently transition from wealth accumulation to joyful, experiential spending, while positioning HSBC as their trusted, proactive financial life advisor?

Why SmartSpend?

Expand HSBC’s Product Mix

Just like Reward+ improved HSBC’s product offering, integrating a AI concierge can help make the bank appear more premium.

Differentiate from Competitors

Being a market mover in this sector especially in Hong Kong can help attract more consumers into the HSBC system

Increase Retention across HSBC Ecosystem

With increased user spending through HSBC networks, the bank can benefit from potential cross-selling opportunities

Product Development Timeline

  • Phase 1

    Market Validation

    Req Funding: $100k HKD

    Objectives

    Understand demand for such a product within the Hong Kong Market

  • Phase 2

    Prototype Development

    Req Funding: $1M HKD

    Objectives

    Develop prototypes with MVP to conduct further testing and compliance runs

  • Phase 3

    Phase 3 Final Product Development

    Req Funding: Unknown

    Reason for Unknown

    Large Scale AI app development project using sensitive Banking Data involves many elements outside our understanding

Questions

What is something that suprised you about the older generation?

One interesting observation was the challenge we faced in securing interviews, yet we had engaging discussions with many individuals from our target audience. To our surprise, they were already quite familiar with voice memos and had a good understanding of AI, including how it works and its potential benefits. In fact, we found that the elderly often placed greater trust in AI compared to the younger generation. This insights suggest that we need to be more proactive in ensuring the information we provide to older individuals is accurate and reliable.

Interestingly, they were also more open to trying new things than younger people. While younger generations tend to stick to familiar methods, the elderly frequently approached our new app with a sense of curiosity, asking, "What do I have to lose?" This willingness to explore helped us refine our marketing strategies, guiding us on whom to target and how to approach them. Overall, those street interviews were invaluable in shaping our understanding of our audience.

What were some challenges you faced?

Our first major concern was the lack of a distinct identity. In contrast to other groups that are building their brands from scratch and creating unique designs, we were essentially extending the HSBC brand. As a result, our design has been heavily influenced by HSBC’s established identity, featuring a white background and a red logo, which adheres to the app's overall scheme. This limitation in brand identity and prototyping initially posed a challenge, as we had to approach our design from a completely different perspective.

Is this something you see your self working on in the future, and what factors do you need to consider?

I believe we’ll all be interested; it’s an exciting concept. From our student interviews, one thing stood out: everyone loved the idea, whether they were from Hong Kong or elsewhere, and regardless of their banking experience with HSBC. This consumer validation has definitely motivated us to pursue the project further.

Since it's an AI app, we also plan to develop an independent language model, which I think will be quite rewarding. However, we do anticipate challenges, especially in terms of the effort required to scale the project. That said, I feel we are all prepared to invest the necessary work. Many of us are tackling tasks we've never handled before, but we’re unified by a common goal. This shared motivation and mindset will undoubtedly help us navigate any obstacles. Ultimately, the only significant challenge seems to be the workload, but that’s something we can manage.