Could your start-up have what it takes? The Asia-Pacific accelerator program is looking for fintech entrepreneurs to help business and product development.

Applications open today for Asia-Pacific’s third annual Fintech Innovation Lab 3-month program, which assists early and growth stage fintech start-ups to increase business potential.

The accelerator program is increasingly servicing entrepreneurs that are developing cutting-edge and disruptive technologies for the financial services sector across a broad area range including big data; analytics and cognitive computing; security and identity management; risk management and compliance; digital marketing and social media; cloud; payments; blockchain technology; talent management; and, Internet of Things applications.

During the first quarter of 2016 investments in Asia-Pacific fintech companies totalled $2.7 billion, representing 51 per cent of the $5.3 billion invested into fintech companies globally, according to an Accenture study.

Senior managing director at Accenture, Jon Allaway stated that the popularity of start-ups was increasingly rapidly.

“In our third year of the lab we have increased the number of financial institutions in the lab to 20 from 12, increased the number of participants we’ll accept in the program to 12 from seven and expanded to include insurance,” he said.

“We’re having fintech discussions at financial institutions across Asia, as executives want to know about the latest cutting edge fintech solutions to invest in, develop or buy that can streamline services for customers.”

The Lab will commence in August and partner the chosen fintech entrepreneurs with senior-level bank and insurance company executives and leading technology entrepreneurs.