Author: Company Announcement

CardUp, a Singapore based card payments platform for cash management, announces that it has secured S$2.2 million (US$1.7m) in funding led by Sequoia India and SeedPlus in order to grow its payments and cash flow management offering to the SME segment. CardUp is changing the way people manage their large recurring payments with an online service that allows any payment made by bank transfer today to be shifted to a credit card, regardless of whether the recipients accept credit cards. Consumers can maximize card benefits such as extended credit terms and the earning of reward points on big payments such…

ayondo, a Global Financial Technology group, today celebrated its first day trading of its shares on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited. The offering of 80,770,000 Invitation Shares at S$0.26 for each share was fully subscribed. ayondo is a global Financial Technology group with subsidiaries authorized and regulated in the UK (FCA) and Germany (BaFin) and additional offices in Singapore, Spain, and Switzerland, offering innovative trading and investment solutions for retail and institutional customers. Mr. Robert Lempka, CEO of ayondo said, “We are extremely excited that ayondo is the first FinTech company to list on the…

MatchMove, a Singapore based virtual card provider, together with SlicePay, India’s pioneering credit provider for young adults and college students, announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind pay-later card powered by MatchMove. With MatchMove’s unique platform, SlicePay is able to empower more than 50,000 millennials with the ability to use their pay-later cards, make frictionless online payments to merchants with a major card network, monitor and track their expenditure, as well as receive customized lending solutions. SlicePay had been disbursing loans to students using prepaid vouchers and cash which had been a challenge. Handling these came with business costs and risks of…

StashAway, a Singapore based robo-adviser with retail license in Singapore, announced that it has completed a USD $5.3 million (SGD $7.0 million) Series A round of funding. A group of family offices subscribed to the round. The round included new investors as well as previous investors in the business, such as the Rozario family and other individual investors. The proceeds of the round will be used to develop and enhance the investment service and technology, as well as to launch StashAway overseas into new markets and expand its reach to new customers. Interest and users of digital investment platforms have…

Culum Capital, a Singapore-based receivables and supply chain financing platform, has announced an investment from GTR Ventures, the world’s first investment and venture-building platform specialising in trade and supply chain. The investment will be used to accelerate Culum’s expansion and support growth. According to The World Trade Organisation (WTO, 2016), 80 per cent of trade is financed by credit or credit insurance. WTO estimates the value of unmet demand for trade finance in developing Asia is US$700 billon. The partnership will improve international investor access to this opportunity in Asia. Culum Capital’s sophisticated platform provides Asian corporates with access to…

Singaporeans are interested in using biometric methods to verify identity (97 percent) and make payments (96 percent), recognizing that biometrics are faster, easier and more secure than traditional passwords, according to a recent Visa survey on biometric authentication for payments. In fact, more than half of the respondents have already used at least one form of biometric authentication including fingerprint recognition (88 percent), facial recognition (56 percent), iris scanning (50 percent) and voice recognition (49 percent). Among the range of biometric solutions, consumers were most familiar with fingerprint recognition, with 51 per cent of them using it regularly. Mandy Lamb,…

Speech by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director, MAS, at Money20/20: This is a conference named after Money. Money has been with us for at least 5000 years. And over the last 300 years or so, we have come to accept Money as being issued by central banks whose mission in life is to safeguard its value. Now, along comes a new phenomenon – crypto money or currency or asset. The past year has seen explosive growth in the trading and use of these crypto assets. We have also seen a roller-coaster ride in their prices. Bitcoin – the most well-known…

Colliers International, a global real estate service launched a new research report assessing the impacts of blockchain technology in the context of commercial real estate (CRE) in Asia. Blockchain has become part of the basic vocabulary of many industries over the past decade. The authentication and security possibilities opened by blockchain are of particular relevance for the property sector, and across Asia examples of the technology being applied in the field are already emerging. Mr. Sam Harvey-Jones, Managing Director of Occupier Services Asia at Colliers International, commented: “Real estate is ripe for blockchain-based disruption due to the complexity of…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Bank of Lithuania have agreed to work together to support the development of the FinTech ecosystems and encourage greater financial innovation in the two countries. The FinTech Co-operation Agreement between the two countries was signed on the sidelines of the Money 20/20 Asia conference in Singapore today. The agreement will allow both regulators to explore joint innovation projects and share information on emerging market trends. It also enables FinTech companies to tap on the support of the respective regulators to better understand the regulatory regime in each country. Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech…

CIMB Bank Berhad (“the Bank” or “CIMB”), through its branch that is being set up in the Philippines, CIMB Bank Philippines Inc., recently entered into partnership agreements with CIS Bayad Center Inc. (“Bayad Center”) and FINTQnologies Corp (“FINTQ”), both affiliates of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (“PLDT”) group of companies. This marks a major milestone in CIMB’s expansion into the Philippines, in preparation for the establishment of its operations in the fourth quarter of 2018. Bayad Center is a pioneer and leader in the outsourced payment collection industry in the Philippines with more than 12,000 payment channels nationwide. Leveraging…

The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) has selected Finastra to drive its digital transformation initiatives. Finastra technology will streamline and automate Vietcombank’s operational processes and improve overall customer experience to enhance loyalty, increase domestic market share and capture growth opportunities in a new era of digital banking. Dao Minh Tuan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Vietcombank, said, “Technology is reshaping the banking industry in Vietnam and the way customers expect to interact with us. The increasing rate of internet penetration in Vietnam, as well as a booming young population that seeks a convenient, accessible and…

A strong 87% of financial technology (FinTech) firms in Southeast Asia are planning to expand their footprint beyond their current markets, according to the Asean FinTech Census 2018 study by EY, which surveyed 170 Southeast Asia-headquartered FinTechs across 16 key subsectors including payments, blockchain, money transfer, data analytics and robo advisory. The survey found that 61% of FinTechs are planning to achieve revenue growth as their immediate future goal within the next 12 months with 46% of respondents expecting to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30% for their revenue. About three-quarter (77%) of the FinTechs believe that…

Suppose your car is involved in a minor mishap, and you hold a Great Eastern motor insurance policy bought from OCBC Bank. Would it not be convenient if you could simply send an image of your dented vehicle to your insurer via your mobile phone, and get an immediate text message telling you how much you would be eligible to claim? Or would you fancy a mobile phone voice assistant that could suggest gift ideas for your Mum’s birthday, once triggered by a question like: ‘How much can I afford for Mum’s gift based on my bank balance?’ With artificial…

Adyen announced the launch of their unified commerce solution in Singapore. An expansion of its current payment processing offerings, the unified commerce solution will manage all customer communications, allowing retailers to create one consistent experience across channels and devices – from customer interface, right through to backend technology. The launch of unified commerce in Singapore marks a significant milestone for Adyen, extending its unified commerce footprint to 27 countries and more than 4,000 cities, with Zest Group in Singapore and global customers like ASICS and Dunkin Donuts all using Adyen to manage in-store transactions. “We are thrilled to launch our…

Yoma and Grab jointly announce that they have signed a strategic framework agreement. The partnership will focus on upgrading the fleet of taxis in Myanmar, together with the provision of vehicle financing for Grab’s driver-partners. Myanmar’s ride-hailing industry has been developing quickly alongside the exponential growth in the country’s internet penetration and smartphone usage. Since Grab’s entry into Myanmar in March 2017, it has gained a leadership position in the ride-hailing market and aims to continue supporting the transformation of the transportation sector. This includes improving taxi standards, safety, and transport efficiency to offer the best experience for passengers, as…

The Bangladesh mobile phone market continued its upward trajectory as both feature phone and smartphone categories witnessed a double-digit growth in 2017. According to the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, a total of 34.2 million mobile phones were shipped in the country in 2017. The smartphone market recorded a strong 20.6 percent annual growth and ended with 8.1 million shipments in 2017. However, feature phones remained the dominating category with more than two-thirds of the shipments in 2017 and a healthy 14.8 percent annual growth. One out of the three smartphones shipped in Bangladesh was a 4G-enabled…

Alipay, the world’s largest mobile and online payment and lifestyle platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, has further grown its cross-border business in Southeast Asia, adding four new countries to its network. This takes the total number of countries where Alipay services are available to Chinese visitors and local merchants in this region to eight. With the expansion, merchants in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and the Philippines are now connected to 520 million active users in China via Alipay’s in-app marketing platform. Cambodia Alipay is now accepted in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville across shopping, F&B, entertainment and…

Singapore continues to lead the way in innovation for the global cash logistics market. However, rather than creating yet another solution for the city-state’s growing cashless ecosystem, alternative fintech start-up soCash aims to reduce the island’s heavy reliance on ATM networks by turning ordinary stores into cashpoints. In doing so, it is helping to improve the country’s cash infrastructure and management for banks, their customers and even its small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Despite global shifts toward e-payments, cash remains the most preferred transaction form for Singaporeans. The cash circulation remains at 8.8 percent of the national GDP and has…

Yoma Strategic Holdings Ltd. plans to acquire a 34% stake in Digital Money Myanmar Co., Ltd. (“Wave Money”) from First Myanmar Investment Company Limited for US$19.4 million, which is subject to completion and will be funded within existing capital plans (the “Acquisition”). Post-acquisition, Telenor will hold a 51% stake, Yoma Strategic 34%, and FMI and Yoma Bank will hold 10% and 5% respectively in Wave Money. The acquisition of Myanmar’s leading mobile financial technology provider will spearhead Yoma Strategic’s expansion into the Financial Services sector. The Company plans to leverage the significant potential of reaching Myanmar consumers through Wave Money’s…

Singapore leads the global adoption of fingerprint biometrics and voice recognition technologies to authenticate a customer’s identity in the financial services sector, according to a new international study “Leaders in Financial Services are Experts in Customer Identity” commissioned by identity data intelligence specialist GBG and conducted by Forrester Consulting. The study surveyed 315 traditional firms as well as fintechs and challengers across the globe in Singapore, China, Australia, the UK, and the US, to examine customer experience maturity and found that Singapore leads in certain areas of customer identity technologies. In terms of fingerprint biometrics, Singapore comes in first (61…