Tokyo – Japanese technology conglomerate Hitachi is set to open a financial technology research laboratory in the US and has revealed its plans to establish a Financial Innovation Laboratory. Operations are expected to commence from April 2016. Hitachi operates in a number of industries including IT, consumer electronics and power generation.
The new laboratory will be based in the company’s existing Global Center for Social Innovation at Santa Clara, which opened in January. Hitachi indicated that it plans to use the research center as a means to work on initiatives with its customer base.
In the sector of FinTech, Hitachi has been accelerating its various initiatives such as the launch of the “Hitachi Mobile Cash Card Service” in December 2015 in Japan which enables smartphones to be used like cash cards for financial transactions.
Hitachi radically restructured its global R&D structuring in February of last year, allocating its global efforts between centers in the United States, Japan, Europe and China.
“Hitachi also joined the “Hyperledger Project,” an open source project established by the Linux Foundation as a board member in February 2016. By establishing the Financial Innovation Laboratory in the Silicon Valley, Hitachi will accelerate research & development of blockchain technology, collaborative creation with customers, and development of solutions to support business innovation in financial institutions.”
Just as venture capital is beginning to tire of the tech startup scene, it appears to have made a fickle and avid move towards FinTech in the last six months – a transformation that seems to be fuelled by the interest in the blockchain distributed ledger system for which Bitcoin has been such a prominent poster child.
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Hitachi, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society’s challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The company’s consolidated revenues for fiscal 2014 (ended March 31, 2015) totaled 9,761 billion yen ($81.3 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others.
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