Five leading firms support Byte Academy's Singapore fintech school

Five major firms have come together to back a fintech school at New York-based Byte Academy's first international venture, in Singapore.

Finextra reported that Standard Chartered Bank, IBM, Insead, Thomson Reuters and Microsoft are going to form a fintech skills charter that will guide Byte Academy's 12-week and 8-week courses for students focusing on fintech and software development.

"The establishment of Byte Academy is another progressive initiative which will help to fuel Singapore’s Smart Nation ambitions by adding to the country’s great ecosystem of financial institutions, technology companies, universities and research organizations”, Shameek Kundu, global head, data, architecture and innovation, Standard Chartered, said, as quoted by Finextra.

The 12-week full-time courses aim at providing the fundamentals for students to work on real, industry-specific problems. These courses will also allow for interaction with industry partners to prepare for direct placement and job matching upon graduation. Graduating students receive guaranteed job placements at the bank and tech partners.

According to Byte Academy’s official website, it offers various courses including FinTech, Software Development, Data Science, Blockchain, and MedTech among others.

“Byte Academy’s presence here in Singapore will help accelerate skills development that will help contribute to a more vibrant FinTech ecosystem and build a stronger Singapore core”, Nobuhiro Ito, director, developer experience and evangelism, Microsoft Singapore, added.

Earlier in August, Byte Academy announced its expansion to Singapore and establishment of its regional headquarters in the city-state following a S$3 million ($2.67 million) Series A investment from Tri5 Ventures, Deal Street Asia reported.