Author: Company Announcement

56 %. That is the percentage of ICO-funded Crypto startups that are bound to collapse after just four months. Admittedly, such a high rate of failure is quite baffling, as funding is most of the time not the main reason – after all, countless startups outreach their hard cap yet find themselves unable to move ahead and deliver on their promises. Evidently enough, many factors come into play to determine a project’s success before, during, and post-ICO. It is also true that some of said factors are unpredictable, but there are nevertheless some constants that are easily identifiable. The discipline…

The fintech industry has achieved a new milestone recently. According to the KPMG Pulse of Fintech report, Global fintech investment roared ahead at a record pace in the first half of 2018, with US$57.9B invested across 875 deals. This value is leaps and bounds beyond the US$38.1B invested throughout the entirety of 2017. Global fintech investment roared ahead at a record pace in the first half of 2018, with US$57.9B invested across 875 deals, a significant increase from the US$38.1B invested in all of 2017, according to the  Pulse of Fintech report. Some of the trailblazers include the record-setting US$14B raise…

Despite being small countries, both Switzerland and Singapore are renowned for a high degree of innovation. In 2018, Switzerland has been ranked number one by the Global Innovation Index for the eighth year in a row while Singapore is the most innovative country in the world outside Europe and ranked fifth in this year’s ranking. According to the Business Times, the Southeast-Asian state was “the best performer for political stability and safety, market capitalisation, foreign direct investment inflows, high and medium-high tech manufacturing and high-tech net exports.” Switzerland on the other hand scores particularly high in the category ‘knowledge and technology…

EZ-Link,  You Technologies Group and Mastercard launched YouTrip, the first multi-currency mobile wallet enabling users to pay in more than 150 currencies when overseas or shopping online without any currency conversion or transaction fees. This tri-party collaboration marks EZ-Link’s first advancement into FinTech, pioneering the future of multi-currency payments in the region. YouTrip is a multi-currency mobile wallet with a contactless Mastercard prepaid card issued by EZ-Link in collaboration with You Technologies Group for users to pay at more than 30 million Mastercard merchants worldwide. With YouTrip, users do not need to incur fees typically charged for currency exchange at banks and…

Cloud-based lending software provider Turnkey Lender have announced that it will collaborate with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to offer its software on HPE ProLiant for Microsoft Azure stack, a hybrid cloud platform. The announcement builds on the success of an initial benchmark test at HPE’s Customer Technology Centre in Singapore. Founded in 2014, Turnkey Lender supplies lending enterprises with open, secure and integrated end-to-end lending automation solutions. These span the entire life cycle of loans, including the applications process, credit scoring, decision-making, loan-servicing, soft collection and reporting stages. Turnkey Lender CEO, Dmitry Voronenko, noted how the collaboration would fast-track lenders’ ability…

Wirecard announced that they’ve extended their partnership up with EZ-Link and Cheers. Now cardholders purchasing goods at select Cheers stores can elect to transfer any change to their EZ-Link card for free. Due to a longtime monopoly that was only recently met with competition, EZ-Link is probably one of Singapore’s most widely used contactless cards for both buses and trains and as a result, many Singaporeans own and use an EZ-Link card. This initiative was first announced earlier this year in February as part of a joint effort by EZ-Link and NTUC (National Trades Union Congress in Singapore). The move…

Prudential announced it has entered into an exclusive partnership agreement with UK-based healthcare technology and services company Babylon Health. Babylon’s artificial intelligence (“AI”) expertise will be made available to existing and new customers of Prudential across Asia marking a step change in Prudential’s commitment to provide digital health services making healthcare affordable and accessible across Asia. Prudential is a leading provider of medical insurance in Asia, with over five million health customers and premium income exceeding £800 million in 2017. Based in the UK, Babylon offers a  suite of AI-powered health services, including personal health assessment and treatment information, empowering…

United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) announced that it is introducing a digital bank for ASEAN’s massive and increasing base of ‘mobile first’ and ‘mobile only’ customers. UOB’s Digital Bank will be deployed in its key Southeast Asian markets as the Group accelerates and broadens the growth of its regional customer franchise. UOB’s Digital Bank customers across the region will enjoy a fully digital experience which is intuitive, transparent and engaging – from the moment they apply to open an account through to their everyday lifestyle needs. Every interaction will be designed to deepen the customer relationship through meaningful conversations and personalised…

Recently, UQPAY went into a strategic collaboration with WAITRR, Singapore’s largest O2O mobile ordering platform. Based on its robust portfolio, innovative development and fusion technology, UQPAY providesWAITRR with comprehensive payment solutions. WAITRR, a dark horse in Singapore’s mobile ordering industry As a mobile ordering platform, WAITRR is committed using new technologies to improve the operation efficiency of F&B industry, to reduce the cost of operation, and to promote the development of the digitization of F&B industry. Currently,WAITRR has 170 merchants. WAITRR not only improves the service efficiency for restaurant partners and significantly reduces the labor costs, it also brings convenient…

B2B robo-advisor provider Quantifeed  announced the launch of its Singapore office and appointment of three new key executives who will be based there. The new appointments follow on the heels of Quantifeed’s recent completion of a Series B funding round for US$10 million, supported by investments from Cathay Financial Holdings and Legg Mason Inc. With over 30 years’ experience in the investment banking industry, Eric Lee now joins Quantifeed as Program Management Lead and Country Head of Singapore, reporting directly to Ross Milward, Quantifeed’s Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder. Ross Milward commented: “We are excited to welcome Eric to the…

[Update] FundedX to cease operations, no authorisation to run a private exchanges/secondary market read more here Singapore-based crowdfunding platform, FundedHere, announced the launch of FundedX, a new private stock exchange to facilitate the trading of shares of high-growth startups and privately-held companies in Southeast Asia. Liquidity for Investors FundedHere plans to establish FundedX as an exchange platform for Southeast Asia’s private markets by creating new opportunities for investors and providing much needed liquidity for shareholders of privately-held companies in the region. Typically in the fragmented secondary sales market, the process of buying and selling shares can be quite tedious as individual…

Seventeen tonnes of almonds have successfully been shipped and tracked from Sunraysia in Victoria, Australia, to Hamburg in Germany in a blockchain-based collaboration between Commonwealth Bank and five Australian and international supply chain companies. Commonwealth Bank demonstrated a new blockchain platform underpinned by distributed ledger technology, smart contracts and the internet of things (IoT) to facilitate the trade experiment, tracking the shipment from packer to end delivery in parallel to existing processes. Chris Scougall, Managing Director of Industrials and Logistics in Client Coverage, CBA said: “Our blockchain-enabled global trade platform experiment brought to life the idea of a modern global…

Flywire, a company that solves complex payment problems for leading businesses and institutions, announced US$100M (SG$136.2M) in new venture funding. The SeriesD round was led by Temasek, an investment company headquartered in Singapore, and joined by existing US-based Flywire investors including Bain Capital Ventures and F-Prime Capital. Flywire has processed over US$8 billion for over 1,400 clients in business, education and healthcare. The company has established its global payment network and processing platform as the industry standard for large-sum international and domestic transactions, providing a single point of management and payer engagement from billing and payment through reconciliation. With Flywire,…

After writing successful hackathon stories in Switzerland where valuable partnerships have started and game-changing FinTech ideas have been born, it is time for F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator to further the revolution of the finance industry on an international level. Below are five reasons why you should attend the first F10 FinTech Hackathon in Singapore from 21. – 23. September 2018. 1. Develop a business idea Are you ready to create the future of finance and regulation in Asia? Spend 48 hours with them to transform great ideas into validated prototypes. Find new ways to approach actual problems of the…

Rakuten and Techstars revealed the 10 startups selected to join the high-profile Rakuten Accelerator, powered by Techstars, in Singapore. Selected based on their ability to shape the future of “Messaging as a Platform” for new technologies, the 10 startups will undergo an intensive 13-week mentor-driven program to rapidly develop their products and go-to-market strategy, with the support of the Techstars and Rakuten global networks. 2 Startups are from Fintech, AND Global based in Singapore and Philippine based Jazzy Pay. Each startup will receive a US$120,000 investment, access to the Techstars Network of over 10,000 founders, alumni, and mentors, and 400 perks…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued a circular to all financial institutions, directing them to tighten their customer verification processes. This follows the recent cyber attack at SingHealth where personal information of 1.5 million individuals was illegally accessed and stolen. For access to online financial services, banks in Singapore are already required to put in place two-factor authentication (e.g. PIN and One-Time-Password) at login to identify their customers. Banks are also required to implement an additional layer of control to authorize high-risk transactions. Financial institutions also have in place robust measures to verify customer identity. Personal information (name,…

Use of mobile banking has overtaken physical branch interactions by 15% during the past 12 months, according to the J.D. Power 2018 Singapore Retail Banking Satisfaction Study. It is clear that Singapore’s Smart Nation journey to digitally transform its banking sector is well on course; however, there are a number of roadblocks to overcome before Singapore can truly be considered a digital and cashless economy. Despite the mobile banking channels making significant progress, the user experience still has a way to go. Among mobile banking customers, 46% indicate having experienced a problem with their mobile banking app, such as long…

Canalys expects the smart speaker installed base will approach the 100-million barrier by the end of this year, making it almost 2.5 times bigger than at the end of 2017. The installed base will keep growing, more than doubling in size to reach 225 million units by 2020. Amazon Echo devices will account for over 50% of the installed base in 2018, while Google’s Home series will account for 30%. Apple’s HomePod models will trail, accounting for a meager 4% of the 2018 base. Canalys Research Analyst Vincent Thielke said, “The US is the world leader in smart speaker adoption.…

An Open Trade Blockchain (OTB), was just launched in Singapore—the region’s first cross-border blockchain platform that is intended to align with China’s Belt Road Initiative. The Belt Road Initiative is China’s ambitious bid to become more technologically interconnected with the world, primarily through a joint effort to grow infrastructure across many different countries. It was launched by Global eTrade Services (GeTS), a subsidiary of CrimsonLogic, a provider of eGovernment products in Singapore. When GeTS was launched a year ago, it amassed more than 10 million transactions in its first year of operation. Today, it conducts 13 million transactions valued at…

After writing successful hackathon stories in Switzerland where valuable partnerships have started and game-changing fintech ideas have been born, it is time for F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator to further the revolution of the finance industry on an international level. Singapore as the heart of the ASEAN economy with its high degree of innovation, excellent living standards, political stability, top universities and numerous headquarters of internationally significant companies is the ideal starting point to revolutionize the worldwide finance industry. F10’s aim in organizing the 48-hour hackathon in Singapore is to bridge the gap between the Swiss and Asian fintech ecosystems…