MatchMove Pay To Tap Into Southeast Asia’s Remittance Market, Hyperledger Wins Innotribe Startup Challenge

by Fintech News Singapore October 22, 2015

Exciting things are happening in Singapore. In case you missed it last week, MatchMove Pay, one of the hottest fintech startups in Southeast Asia, was granted a remittance license from Singapore’s central bank to tap into Southeast Asia’s juicy remittance market. Meanwhile at Sibos, blockchain startup Hyperledger won the 2015 Innotribe Startup Challenge.

MatchMove Pay Gets Remittance License from MAS

MatchMove Pay, a fintech startup that aims to bring online and mobile payments to Southeast Asia, has been granted a remittance license from Singapore’s central bank and financial regulatory authority, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), reported e27.

The license will enable MatchMove Pay to tap into Southeast Asia’ US$ 50 billion remittance market, CEO and founder Shailesh Naik indicated during a conference. He further estimates that outbound remittance from Singapore will surpass US$1 billion.

More specifically, the approval from MAS will allow MatchMove Pay to bring instant remittance services to mobile phone users living in Singapore, an “innovative but compliant and regulated services” that will operate through the MatchMove Pay wallet service, Naik said.

Through the new remittance service, recipients will be able to collect cash from one of the 250,000 physical locations available in the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

Hyperledger Wins 2015 Innotribe Startup Challenge

Hyperledger, a blockchain startup that provides financial institutions with distributed ledger technologies, has won the 2015 Innotribe Startup Challenge and US$50,000 in prize money.

Hyperledger, which was acquired by Blythe Masters’ Digital Asset Holdings earlier this year, pitched on Wednesday 14 October, alongside 11 other early-stage finalists, among which Hong Kong-based bitcoin remittance platform Bitspark.

“The Innotribe experience and team have been fantastic from start to finish. Progressing from the New York regional showcase was extremely valuable in our acquisition by Digital Asset Holdings,” Daniel O’Prey, founder of Hyperledger, said in a statement.

“We have had amazing exposure to our target market and look forward to following-up on all the leads it has generated as well as having a closer relationship with SWIFT.”

Each year, the Innotribe Startup Challenge grand finale takes place during Sibos, an annual banking and financial conference organized by SWIFT. The program seeks to provide the most impressive fintech startups with the opportunity to showcase their products to the world’s top industry experts, decision-makers, banks and VCs.

Innotribe Startup Challenge previous winners include Epiphyte (2014 Winner, Startup), MatchMove (2014 Winner, Innovator), KlickEx (2013 Winner, Startup) and Waratek (2013 Winner, Innovator).

Cover image credit: 2015 Innotribe Startup Challenge Winner, Hyperledger, Innotribe.