Author: Fintech News Singapore

Shopping and rewards platform ShopBack announced that it has raised US$80 million in a funding round led by Asia Partners, bringing its total funds raised to over US$230 million. ShopBack’s existing investor January Capital had also participated in the funding round. The capital will be invested into developing new and innovative products for users and merchant partners, deepening its presence across the Asia Pacific, and building capabilities for public market readiness. ShopBack’s mobile app offers a plethora of shopping deals, rewards and payment methods at the users’ fingertips. The announcement comes on the heels of the launch of ShopBack Pay,…

Private market exchange ADDX has partnered with the China Construction Bank (Chongqing and Singapore branches) to help domestic investors in China participate in the country’s official offshore investment scheme. Both entities signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work together on the custody and distribution of a US$200 million quota allocation under the QDLP scheme. Launched in 2012, the Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership scheme, or QDLP, allows sophisticated investors in China to participate in renminbi funds focused on overseas investment opportunities. Unlike other offshore schemes such as QDII and Wealth Management Connect, the QDLP allows offshore investments in a greater variety…

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) banking platform Mambu has made four new senior hires to its C-suite to support its future growth. Mambu has appointed Werner Knoblich as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Fernando Zandona as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Tripp Faix as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Sabrina Dar as Chief of Staff to the CEO. According to Mambu, Knoblich and Zandona both join from global hypergrowth, customer-centric environments – a key element to its value proposition. Knoblich will be working to capitalise on the market opportunity for cloud banking software and drive increased value for customers. He was previously responsible for software…

In Singapore, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are struggling to secure sufficient financing from traditional lenders, with most still largely relying on their personal networks to support their business, findings from a new study by cloud banking startup Mambu show. The Small Business, Big Growth report draws on results of a survey of 1,000+ SME owners globally who set up their company and applied for a business loan in the last five years. The study, which sought to understand SMEs’ most pressing challenges, found that SMEs in Singapore face an uphill struggle when it comes to securing financing. In the…

Crypto.com announced today that it has received in-principle approval for a Major Payment Institution License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Once Crypto.com secures the full license, the crypto exchange will be able to offer a wide range of payment services within the Payment Services Act, including Digital Payment Token (DPT) services to customers in Singapore. Crypto.com had also recently announced that it has received provisional approval of its Virtual Asset MVP License from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and plans to launch its cryptocurrency exchange service in Dubai. Despite securing the two approvals, the crypto exchange…

DBS PayLah! users can now make payments to retailers in 45 countries using UnionPay’s QR Code payment option. DBS is the first Singapore bank to enable this service. The service is the result of a collaboration between DBS, UnionPay International (UPI), and the Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS). It seamlessly integrates UnionPay’s payment network with DBS PayLah! through a unified API and taps on NETS’s payment network. When using DBS PayLah! to pay overseas, the app automatically handles the transaction’s currency conversion. DBS PayLah! is an everyday app with 2.2 million users for getting rides, booking tickets, ordering meals and…

Partior, a blockchain technology provider for payments clearing and settlement, has set up its new Hyderabad Development Center in India and made several appointments to its leadership team. The Hyderabad Development Center is the first in the company’s line-up of international offices which will focus on Web 3.0, scaling the production and delivery of its technology. The new center will harness the vast engineering talent pool in India to deepen the company’s innovation capabilities as the company prepares the fourth-generation of its product this year. With advanced engagements involving leading banks, central banks and fintech companies across 15 countries, Partior…

Fintech investment platform Helicap announced that it has raised US$5 million in a funding round from global asset managers Tikehau Capital and PhillipCapital. Jean-Baptiste Feat, Global Co-CIO of Tikehau Capital and Grace Tang, Executive Director at Phillip Private Equity, will join Helicap’s advisory team, lending their expertise and network to Helicap’s founders and the broader team. Helicap said that the new capital will enable it as a group to “democratise access to private markets and becoming the dominant digital private investment platform in Southeast Asia”. The company provides curated access into the private placements space in Southeast Asia while financially…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the first use case of NovA! to help financial institutions (FIs) assess the sustainability performance of Singapore’s real estate sector. NovA! is a part of the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Programme in Finance that aims help FIs harness AI to generate insights on financial risk. In the initial phase, the programme will focus on enhancing FIs’ ability to assess companies’ environmental impact and identify emerging environmental risks. FIs would be able to tap on NovA! for their ESG risk assessment for originating, underwriting and servicing of sustainability linked loans. At loan origination, FIs…

The pandemic has accelerated the growth of non-face-to-face interactions, forcing banks, merchants and others to swiftly deploy digital tools to accurately verify the identity of the person on the other end of a digital transaction. A 2021 study by advisory firm Aite-Novarica looked at ten vendors in the document identification and verification (ID&V) space, highlighting a notable growth in the demand for document ID&V solutions. Within the next two years, 90% of financial institutions surveyed by the firm shared plans to implement mobile identity document capture and verification solutions. These trends are reflective of the changing face of customer expectations and behaviors…

Consumer financial data service provider Experian found that a quarter of consumers across Asia Pacific (APAC) have been victims of online fraud, but across all markets surveyed in the region, many remain unconcerned about fraud and identity theft amidst today’s growing fraud risk due to digitisation. In the six APAC markets surveyed – Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore – in Experian’s Global Identity & Fraud Report, consumers in China and India appeared to be especially vulnerable, with 29% of consumers in each market having been the victim of online fraud. This is slightly higher than global figures, where…

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit plans to lay off up to 30% of its workforce saying that while the organisation’s size had grown exponentially, the pace of its overall business growth has lagged. According to an internal email by Ben Zhou, Co-founder and CEO of Bybit that was secured by crypto reporter Wu Blockchain, the company had expanded by 300% since early 2020 and that the rapid expansion has made it “too comfortable”. Ben added that the company uncovered that internal efficiency turned out to be its biggest problem following its latest employee reviews. He said in the email, “This means our…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the Banque de France (BdF) and the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR) had carried out a joint crisis management exercise focused on cybersecurity threats. Backed by the Banque de France, ACPR is the administrative authority that supervises the banking and insurance sectors and ensures financial stability. The exercise follows from the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Cybersecurity signed between MAS, BdF and ACPR in November 2019. The joint exercise tested the effectiveness of cyber crisis coordination and response by the three financial authorities when managing scenarios such as ransomware, zero-day…

After underwhelming performances in 2020, fintech funding in Southeast Asia regained some of its strength in 2021, a dynamism that remained in Q1 2022. During the first quarter of the year, Southeast Asian fintech companies raised a total of US$1.4 billion, a sum that represents a 16.7% year-on-year (YoY) increase, data from Dealroom show. Combining Dealroom’s data with a S&P Global Market Intelligence May 2022 report shows that Southeast Asia made up about 40% of total fintech funding in Asia-Pacific (APAC) in Q1 2022, showcasing the region’s vibrancy. Q1 2022 was a record quarter for fintech funding across APAC, which…

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is hiring for 2000 open positions, according to its Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao (CZ) in a tweet on Wednesday. This is in stark contrast to the other crypto exchanges announcing major layoffs, hiring freezes and even rescinding job offers to extend their runways during the market downturn. Singapore’s Crypto.com will lay off 5% of its workforce (about 260 employees) while Coinbase was forced to slash about one fifth of its workforce. Bloomberg reported that the company had cut off these employees’ access to their laptop and emails before some of them even got the news. Earlier…

Venture capital firm True Global Ventures (TGV) announced the first closure of its US$146 million follow on fund that will focus on global blockchain startups in 20 cities in North America, Europe and Asia. The fund is dedicated to Web3 companies, primarily in late-stage Series A through C across 3 verticals – entertainment and gaming; financial services; as well as infrastructure and data analytics / Artificial Intelligence (AI). The new Follow On Fund will focus on investing a majority of its capital into selected TGV 4 Plus base fund companies. TGV has invested in Web3 companies such as Animoca Brands,…

Crypto payments firm TripleA announced that it has secured US$4 million in funding from Razer’s corporate ventures arm, zVentures. Eric Barbier, Founder, and CEO of TripleA shares that “this strategic investor partnership with zVentures brings knowledge, connections and consultancy in the gaming sector for TripleA, a key vertical for crypto payments.” Right now, there is immense potential for crypto firms to become more involved in the gaming industry. According to a survey conducted by World Asset eXchange, 80 percent of gamers are interested in using cryptocurrency to make transactions within gaming. “Through zVentures, we are always on the lookout for…

Track Better and Offset Better are the two features most recently rolled out on LiveBetter, a one-stop digital platform on the DBS digibank app that seeks to educate and empower users to make sustainable lifestyle choices and live more consciously. Leveraging the bank’s proprietary carbon calculator, the Track Better feature automatically calculates and generates a customer’s estimated carbon footprint profile based on their qualifying DBS/POSB debit and credit card spends. DBS has developed a carbon calculation methodology specially designed for customers in Singapore, which has been jointly verified with the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), a unit of the…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has launched an open financial education and action programme for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Asia and Africa. Known as the SME Financial Empowerment (SFE), this programme aims to help MSMEs build foundational digital financial literacy skills, and gain a good understanding of cross-border financial services relevant to MSMEs, to help them thrive in the post-pandemic digital economy. The SFE was rolled out with market partners in Asia and Africa, starting with Ghana, India, the Philippines, and…

Sequoia India and Sequoia Southeast Asia announced that they have collectively raised US$2.85 billion across a set of funds. This includes Sequoia’s India venture and growth funds as well as an US$850 million Southeast Asian fund, its first dedicated fund for the SEA region. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Sequoia as a global firm, 16 years in India, and 10 in Southeast Asia. According to Sequoia, the fundraise comes at a time when markets are starting to cool after a very long bull run which signals its commitment to the growth in India and Southeast Asia. The new…