The bitcoin craze has gone well beyond the US and Europe. In Africa, startups such as BitPesa are revolutionizing the remittance market, enabling cheap and fast money transfers. In South America, bitcoin firm BitINKA announced in June its plans to become the region’s first universal exchange platform with operations in Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Colombie and Chile.
In Asia, startups are using Bitcoin and blockchain technology for all sorts of things: remittances, salary payments, or even business incorporation.
To keep track with this burgeoning space, we have compiled a list of the top ten major startups from Southeast Asia that are using blockchain technology for a number of use cases.
Here it goes:
Toast
Based in Singapore, Toast is a peer-to-peer money transfer application for web and smartphones that targets Southeast Asian migrant workers, allowing them to remit money back home in a faster and cheaper manner.
In October, Toast raised S$1.2 million in a seed funding round led by Aetius Capital and ACE & Company to fuel its expansion in the large and growing Asian remittance market.
Otonomos
Otonomos is a Singaporean blockchain startup that allows entrepreneurs to incorporate their businesses on a digital distributed ledger, allowing massive disintermediation in traditional processes and reducing friction, according to Han Verstraete, co-founder of Otonomos.
Its online service enables users to form, fund and govern their companies on the blockchain, bringing company incorporation to the digital era.
BitX
Incorporated in Singapore, BitX is a bitcoin startup with offices in Jakarta and Cape Town, that offers a number of services including a bitcoin wallet and a bitcoin payment solution for merchants.
Founded in 2013, the company launched operations in Nigeria in July 2015 to exploit Bitcoin’s potential in Africa’s biggest economy. It has recently raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Venturra Capital, a US$150 million venture fund based in Jakarta, Indonesia focused on the Southeast Asian region to expand to further markets.
BitX’s bitcoin wallet has been qualified as “the slickest and easiest-to-use mobile Bitcoin wallet.”
Bitcoin Indonesia
Bitcoin Indonesia is a bitcoin exchange platform that allows users to buy and sell the digital currency with Rupiah.
Unlike other domestic players such as Artabit, Bitcoin Indonesia solely focuses on bitcoin exchange services, and is arguably one of the more trusted exchanges in the country.
The company claims that all deposits and withdrawals are processed within 12 hours, and that it uses military-grade cryptography to protect users against fraud.
In September 2014, Bitcoin Indonesia concluded a deal with Indomaret, the largest chain of convenience stores in Indonesia, to allow residents to buy and receive bitcoin over the counter at over 10,000 stores around the country.
CoinPip
Similarly to Toast, CoinPip is a Singapore-based payments company that leverages the bitcoin blockchain to allow global money transfers, but unlike Toast, CoinPip targets remote workers by allowing them to get paid in a faster and easier way.
Payments are sent directly into the recipient’s bank account so they don’t have to actually touch Bitcoin.
CoinPip also provides merchant with payment solutions (Online and Point of Sales App) that allow merchants to easily accept bitcoin from mobile wallets (Mobile, Web-based and SMS).
Coins.ph
Based in Metro Manila, Philippines, Coins.ph provides peer-to-peer wallet transfers, bill payments, mobile top-ups, online shopping, and remittance services.
As a service running on the bitcoin blockchain, Coins.ph uses the digital currency as a low cost gateway to banking and aims to tap into the 300+ million unbanked people in the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia.
Its cash delivery network covers tens of thousands of banks, pawnshops, payment outlets, and door-to-door delivery across the region.
Neuroware
Based in Kuala Lumpur, Neuroware is a blockchain startup that provides businesses working with distributed ledger technology with the appropriate protocols. Neuroware especially provides businesses with on-chain data storage, decentralized identity and authentication, and public key management services.
The company’s industries of expertise include banking, healthcare, accounting, legal, governance, logistics, gaming, assets and insurance.
DXMarkets
DXMarkets is a software company specialized in blockchain technology for the financial sector. With a goal to “re-defines the way Capital Markets operate,” DXMarkets leverages blockchain technology to help these businesses benefit from reduced costs, real-time settlement and transparency.
DXMarkets, which has offices in both London and Singapore, is one of the ten startups to be selected to join FUSION’s first batch of fintech startups.
DigixGlobal
Based in Singapore, Digix is an asset tokenization platform on the Ethereum blockchain that aims to marry the functionality and transactional utility of cryptocurrencies with real world physical assets.
For instance, one Digix Gold token represents a one-gram share of a physical gold bar. Users can redeem their Digix tokens any time or trade them on the Ethereum blockchain for goods, services or any other digital assets such as bitcoin and ether.
Amilabs
Amilabs is a Thailand registered software development company that specializes in blockchain technology for the digitization of physical or electronic assets, commodities and fiat currencies.
Its flagship product, Midas Rezerv and MRCoin.gold, allows users to invest, trade and make payments with physical gold using bitcoin technology. Similarly to Digix Gold tokens, one MRCoin is fully backed by one gram of physical gold stored in secured, fully insured and audited vaults.
Did we miss a company? Share your thoughts and comment below.
More Blockchain/Bitcoin Startups can also be found here.
Image credit: Singapore Marina Bay, Wikipedia.
