How did you get involved with working with tech startups?
I was originally working in venture capital, investing in and building early stage startups. When the pandemic happened, it struck me that secure digital documents would be key to better managing information flow during this time.
I was introduced to Accredify through one of my colleagues. At the time, Accredify was only active in the education industry. Together, we expanded the business to healthcare, associations, construction and finance industries
It was during this time that I realised I loved being back operating and managing businesses. When the CEO, Zheng Wei Quah, invited me to join as their first senior business hire, it was an easy yes.
What was the inspiration or story behind the creation of Accredify?
The world has shifted from print data to digital data over the last few decades. However, with the prominence of social media came the advent of misinformation. Now, we see the world shifting again: from digital data to verifiable and authentic data.
Accredify’s mission is to accelerate and power this change. We help organisations create, issue, and verify tamper-proof verifiable credentials, documents and data using blockchain technology.
We began in education by assisting Singaporean universities and educational organisations to prevent the use of fake degrees and certificates.
When the COVID-19 pandemic came about, it exposed a gap in Singapore's healthcare sector: the large-scale management of medical records, which were mostly in paper format. Relying on paper-based certificates posed significant issues as they lacked credibility and could be susceptible to tampering and falsification, making it difficult for officials to verify them.
Now Accredify has an additional focus, working with associations to provide digital, easily shareable credentials, badges and certificates to their members. We realised our product can be easily tailored to increase member engagement, boost brand awareness and provide their members trusted digital credentials.
Why did you choose Australia as your next market? What makes it a good fit?
Australia is a logical next step in our growth strategy because of its strong commitment to digital transformation.
The Australian government has announced a number of initiatives to support the development of a digital economy, including investing in emerging technologies such as blockchain and expanding the use of its Digital Identity System, as part of its Digital Economy Strategy.
We aim to expand our solutions to enable more industries and markets to build digital trust in their business operations, public sector governance, and daily life using verifiable technology solutions.
What can Accredify offer to Australia?
There is a huge appetite for digitalisation among Australian industries. There are significant opportunities for Accredify to bring in our learnings from Singapore to ensure that these digital interactions are trusted, efficient and that end-users own and control their sensitive information and documents.
We’re looking forward to leveraging our best in class experience combined with Australian innovation and digital ambition to improve the way Australian citizens, patients and students manage, store and share their valuable and sensitive information.
What can our readers do to help you succeed?
Next time your organisation sends someone a PDF containing important and sensitive information that they are going to share with a third party – ask “surely there is a better way of doing this?”
You can learn more and see Accredify in action here.
