Here is a summary of our Hot Fintech articles from 2017 for South East Asia and Hong Kong. We will update this list soon. Stay tuned.
Singapore
Established in 2007, CashShield is a transaction fraud detection service that leverages on big data, predictive analysis and machine learning. The technology is able to analyze in real time opertinent variables such as customer purchase behavior, account logins and social media behavior to determine whether a fraudulent transaction is taking place.
TransferTo operates a Cross-Border Mobile Payments Network to emerging markets, processing transactions in real-time for duly licensed financial institutions and merchants.
TransferTo offer solutions for businessess providing remittance, push payments and merchant payment services. Thousands of leading companies including Vodafone’s M-Pesa, bKash, Tigo Money, Western Union, Xoom and Paypal, rely on TransferTo’s Mobile Payments solutions to perform digital payments.
SoCash is a startup that has developed a clever system allowing merchants to become local cash machines. SoCash turns any business into an ATM, allowing users to withdraw cash from a merchant’s till.
The system uses a customer’s bank’s mobile app to let him or her transfer an amount to the merchant’s bank account. Then the user can pick up the amount in cash at that outlet.
TradeHero is a gamified social trading app that allows you to trade and learn from the behaviour of other users in the community. It has been ranked the #1 finance app in over 90 countries. You can learn how to trade, experiment with virtual cash, follow experienced “Heroes” and compete in virtual trading competitions. When you’re ready, toggle the LIVE button to fund your account to start trading and replicating your winning virtual trades with real money.
Funding Societies is a friendly online platform for SMEs to acquire loans to fuel their growth and for investors to crowdlend the SME loans and earn returns of up to 14% per annum.
FitSenseoffers an online platform that leverages data analytics to help insurance companies personalize health and life insurance packages for individuals using smartphones and wearable devices.
Smartkarma is a curated online platform for investment insight aimed at providing unconflicted and unmatched analysis, transparency, and context into Asian markets and help global institutional investors.
Tookitaki, a startup specializing in risk and compliance, has created a decision support system, or DSS, a ready-to-use software infrastructure focusing on automated predictive analysis.
The platform gives organizations the ability to analyze complete data sets faster and more easily than before. The company’s goal is to make automated predictive analytics simple and scalable for all types of businesses.
Vietnam
MoMo, Vietnam’s raising star, achieved global recognition earlier this year when it raised US$28 million in a Series B funding round led by Goldman Sachs and Standard Chartered Private Equity.
Timo, a product of Lifestyle Project Management Viet Nam, is the country’s first and only neo-bank, enabling residents to manage their finances via their smartphones and allowing for more convenience and flexibility for the youngsters and digitally-savvy ones.
OnOnPay is a mobile wallet and phone top-up startup seeking to addresses the needs of unbanked people in a market where credit cards are not widely used. The company offers both a web-based platform and a mobile app that allow users to top up their prepaid mobile phones and win rewards like extra credit and coupons.
BankGo is a financial comparison platform that launched in open beta in October. The platform lets users compare financial products and personals loans including housing, car and consumer loans, as well as credit cards, savings accounts and SME loans.
Cash2VN, a service of Bitcoin Vietnam, provides a remittance platform for people to send money to their loved ones in Vietnam. The solution leverages the Bitcoin network to enable faster, cheaper and more convenient international money transfers.
Trusting Social has developed a credit scoring system that combines Big Data technology with social, web and mobile data. Founded in June 2013 in the US, Trusting Social targets the three billion of “invisible customers” from emerging markets. This group of consumers is often considered unscorable by the traditional credit system because of their lack of credit history.
Money Lover is a personal finance app developed by Hanoi-based startup ZooStudio. Essentially, Moneylover is a finances and expenses manager for individuals. The solution allows users to track their expenses over time and manage their monthly and annual budget.
Malaysia
Founded in 2012, Soft Space is an award-winning fintech startup that develops solutions for the e-banking and payment industry.
With 20 operational sites across Southeast Asia, the company serves some of the leading banks in the region.
Ethis Kapital claims to be the world’s first and only licensed Islamic crowdfunding peer-to-peer platform. The company has recently been granted a peer-to-peer financing platform operator license by the Securities Commission Malaysia. Its crowdfunding platform has yet to go live.
Crowdo is a fintech company specializing in crowdfunding solutions. The firm focuses on the Southeast Asian market and currently operates in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
ManagePay Systems Berhad (MPay)
ManagePay Systems Berhad (MPay) is a fintech company in Malaysia specializing in payment and money services to enterprises. More specifically, MPay provides end-to-end electronic payment solutions to banks and financial institutions, merchants and card issuers with operations in Malaysia.
Established in 2012, iMoney Group (Intelligent Money Sdn Bhd) is fintech firm that operates a network of financial comparison websites. The group is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and has operations in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Thailand.
Fintech startup MoneyMatch currently offers two services: MoneyMatch Travel, a free and easy-to-use website travel information portal, and MoneyMatch Exchange, a mobile-based communications platform for physical currency exchange.
GHL Systems is a leading end-to-end payment services provider in Asia Pacific with over 400 employees across offices in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Manila, Sydney and Wuhan.
GHL deploys products and services to clients in various industries including banking and financial services, oil and gas, retail, telecommunications and transportation.
MyCash Online is an online marketplace designed for Malaysian and Singaporean migrants. The platform offers easy, secure and convenient online services to the foreign workers who do not have access to online banking or credit cards.
Founded in 2008, Tranglo serves over 250 mobile network operators and more than 400 banks, offering three main products: Prepaid Reload, Money Transfer and Digital Gifts.
Prepaid Reload is a single reload card, which enables the sale of airtime credit from and to multiple mobile network operators.
Hong Kong
8 Securities is a leading online and mobile investing service in Asia with offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo.
8 Securities’ portfolio includes a robo-advisor service and a mobile stock trading app. 8 Securities was the first in Asia to follow the lead of notorious US-based stock trading app Robinhood and offer no-commission trading.
The company has raised US$17 million in funding so far.
TNG Wallet is one of Hong Kong’s leading e-wallets with over 370,000 downloads and usage rate comprising around 5% of Hong Kong’s population.
The mobile app features instant money transfer, forex, bank transfer, global bill payment and global SIM top-up functionalities.
Quantifeed is leading provider of digital wealth management solutions to financial institutions in Asia.
Quantifeed’s automated investment platform allows banks, brokers and wealth planners to offer their customers a digital investing experience under their own brand.
ANX International is a fintech company specializing in digital currency and blockchain technology.
ANX aims at being a one- stop solution that merges blockchain technologies with traditional payment networks in the new digital assets ecosystem. The company’s portfolio includes ANX Blockchain Solutions, ANX Payment Solutions, ANX Next Commercial Solutions.
Founded in 2013, CompareAsiaGroup is Asia’s leading and fastest growing financial comparison platform, with a presence in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Founded in 2011, Lenddo is a technology company that uses non-traditional data to provide credit scoring and verification for the emerging middle class around the world.
Lenddo has developed its patented technology based on four years of actual online lending experience that included collection, analysis and processing of billions of data points. The Lenddo Data Science team uses advanced machine learning techniques to build predictive algorithms.
APrivacy is an award-winning fintech company that provides the banking and finance industry with an information security and tracking service.
APrivacy’s patented solution allows bankers to communicate and share information with their clients using the devices they prefer (iPhone, Android, etc.) via the channels they prefer (Gmail, Outlook, Dropbox, etc. ) and the medium they prefer (email, PDF, PPT, Word, Excel, etc. ).
Bitspark is a remittance platform serving the Asia-Pacific region.
Bitspark provides the world first cash in cash out remittance platform for individuals and Money Transfer Operators to send money to emerging markets cheaper, quicker and to more destinations than ever before leveraging Bitcoin as the means of transmission.
Contineo is the first industry supported, open messaging network for private banks and wealth management firms to access issuers of structured products.
Contineo provides multiple ways to connect, multiple APIs to choose from, and multiple issuers on network.
Neat is a mobile current account solution that allows users to follow their finances, set saving goals and have a 100% digital banking experience. It is designed for the millennial generation and will come with a MasterCard for online and offline shopping.
Launched in 2012 by former investment professionals and IT experts, WeConvene is a platform for the finance community aimed at revolutionizing how interactions between investors, corporate and the sell side community are managed, measured and evaluated.
WeLab is a fintech startup founded in 2013 operating a number of online lending platforms including Wolaidai, one of China’s leading mobile leading platforms, and WeLend, Hong Kong’s leading online lending platform.
Indonesia
Bareksa.com is an integrated investment portal. Launched in 2013 by PT Bareksa Portal Investasi, it is the country’s first of its kind, offering customers with data services and investment tools, news and information, learning center, and an investors community.
HaloMoney is a comparison website for financial products such as insurance, broadband, banking and loans, aims at empowering customers to take more control over their finances.
CekAja, a service of Jakarta-based Compare88 Group Pte., is a comparison website for financial products focusing on accuracy, security, and simplicity. The portal compares personal loans, credit cards, deposits, and syariah, a deposit that follows Islamic principles.
Established in 2001, Kartuku (PT Multi Adiprakarsa Manunggal) is one of Indonesia’s oldest electronic payments companies.
Kartuku is a Third Party Processor (TPP) and Payment Service Provider (PSP) offering hardware products such as payment terminals, network access equipment, and card printers and encoders, and software solutions such as transaction processing switch, Internet payment gateway, smart card applications, and terminal line encryption.
Established in 2007 by PT Nusa Satu Inti Artha, Doku is Indonesia’s largest and fastest growing provider of electronic payment and risk management solutions.
The company provides electronic payment processing, online and mobile payments applications, and serves some 800 businesses in Indonesia.
NgaturDuit.com offers tools and services aimed at helping users manage their finance including budgeting, expense reporting, investment portfolio monitoring and free consultation.
Another payments startup is Veritrans which operates an online payment gateway, supporting Indonesian e-commerce.
Veritrans processes payments through credit card, direct debit (Mandiri Clickpay, CIMB Clicks, e-Pay BRI), bank transfer (Permata Virtual Account, Mandiri Bill Payment), Indomaret, and digital wallet (T-cash, XL Tunai, BBM Money, Indosat Dompetku, Mandiri eCash).
Philippines
Ayannah specializes in digital commerce and payment services for unbanked populations. The company builds and operates innovation digital commerce and payment services and has enabled millions of online and mobile transactions.
BeamAndGo, a service of Singaporean BeamAndGo Pte. Ltd., provides Filipinos and overseas Filipinos with a way to purchase groceries, supplies, health care, insurance, education and prescription medicines, for their friends and families in the Philippines.
BeamAndGo is very similar to an e-commerce platform except that it focuses on life’s essentials.
LendMe.ph is a platform providing advising for personal, home, vehicle and business loans. It analyzes users’ needs to determine the most suitable product. LendMe.ph aims at serving as a bridge between borrowers and lenders and be the “one-stop loan solutions.”
Acudeen is a peer-to-peer invoice marketplace that allows small and medium-sized enterprises to convert their unclaimed receivables for cash to boost their cash flow. Acudeen, the first online marketplace for invoice discounting in the Philippines, aims at becoming the market leader in the Asia Pacific region.
PawnHero is the first pawnshop serving the Southeast Asian region that operates essentially online. The platform lets users pawn and/or sell their personal belongings in exchange of cash.
Tagcash aims at providing a solution for micropayments in Southeast Asia, starting with the Philippines. The platform is part of a wider ecosystem that combines social media and payment functionalities, allowing users to share “moments” and purchase goods and services.
Singaporean MyFinB specializes in financial analytics using proprietary artificial intelligence technology. The company, which operates all around the world through country dedicated platforms, allows businesses to create their own credit analytics bureau within their organizations.
Mynt, which hasn’t been launched yet, is expected to provide financial services to the unbanked and underserved. The company aims at increasing financial inclusion.
Lendr is an end-to-end loans origination and loans management platform aimed at financial institutions and credit providers. The company provides banks and financial services firms with a fully digital, multi-channel, telco- and bank-agnostic platform.
In February, the startup signed a deal with UnionBank of the Philippines, a partnership aimed at boosting the bank’s retail loan growth.
Thailand
Flow Account is a cloud-based accounting system that is used widely the country’s local merchants and businesses. The startups is one of the very few to introduce a smart financial management systems for businesses to utilize.
Finnomena is a growing fintech startup formed by top investment gurus in Thailand. We aim to unlock the investment potential in Thai people by providing tools and knowledge needed in investing and personal financial planning. Our intention in founding FINNOMENA is that we want this area to be a new phenomenon in the creation, promotion and education of financial investment. The gurus in the financial and investment circles share knowledge and share experiences through both online media and the media.
Piggipo is an application functionality to credit card users are ingested. To help manage card spending problems.
StockRaders is a professional trading platform that allows high profile investors to purchase a diverse portfolio of stocks from Asia’s stock markets. The startup secured around US$800,000 at a $10 millionvaluation, which easily makes the startup the most valuable fintech firm in the local industry.
Blockchain and bitcoin
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
LunoLuno is a leading global digital currency company with a team of over 40 technology and finance experts, operating across several countries and continents. Our products and services make it safe and easy for people and businesses to store, buy, use and learn about digital currencies like Bitcoin. Our vision is to empower billions of people by bringing Bitcoin to everyone, everywhere.
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.
