Author: Fintech News Singapore

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…

500 Startups-backed CoinPip seeks to disrupt the global remittances market by using bitcoin to facilitate domestic and international money transfers. Similarly to Bitspark and Toast, CoinPip enables low-cost global money transfers by leveraging Bitcoin’s blockchain. Users don’t need to have any knowledge of or experience with using bitcoin; bitcoin is simply the medium through which the exchanges take place. They never interact with bitcoin as all transfers start and end in the currency of choice. Released in June, CoinPip’s “Direct Payments” feature allows businesses and individuals to send money to the bank accounts of partners and remote workers in seven…

Mobile use in Vietnam has significantly increased Internet penetration and growth in e-commerce, a new report says. According to Moore Coorporation’s latest ‘Vietnam Digital Landscape 2015’ report, Vietnam is experiencing meaningful growth in Internet penetration, all thanks to mobile phones. In Vietnam, 44% of the country’s total population is now Internet users, three times more than in 2005. But most importantly, the number of mobile subscriptions increased by eight times compared to 2005 with now 128.6 million subscriptions, surpassing the country’s population, 90.9 million. Overall, people mostly use Internet on their mobile phones (93%), followed by computers (44%). These users,…

Personal finance portal MoneySmart seeks to help Singaporeans maximize their money by curating and aggregating product information of a number of personal financial products on a single digital platform. Founded in 2009, MoneySmart provides users with a platform where they can access simplified financial advice, as well as compare prices and features for at least 16 different personal financial products, including loans, insurance, and credit card. Its purpose: make finance comprehensible to the masses and eliminate the traditional jargon that only a handful of professionals actually understand. By aggregating and consolidating product information, the platform aims to provide the right…

Combining the oldest form of money and one of the most cutting-edge technologies, commodity-backed digital currencies have been praised for allowing users to safely store assets such as gold on the blockchain. Unlike bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies which solely rely on demand and offer, they give an intrinsic value and tangibility to a digital token. BitGold, Midas Reserv and DigitalTangible are only a few startups that are providing users with digital tokens that are representative of a certain amount of gold or silver. Now, Singaporean startup DigixGlobal seeks to do just that with digital tokens that correspond to legal ownerships…

DBS HotSpot Pre-Accelerator officially launched on September 7 at BASH, in Singapore. 11 teams have been handpicked to join the three-month program, which aims to support entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in Singapore through experimentation, mentorship and funding. The 11 selected startups will be given S$25,000 in seed capital, working space at Block 79, as well as receive mentorship from startup veterans, DBS corporate executives and accelerators. Following the three-month intensive program, they will pitch their products to investors and accelerators. Commenting on the DBS HotSpot Pre-accelerator program, Neal Cross, chief innovation officer of DBS said: “There is two issues that we…

Singaporean remittance startup Toast has raised S$1.2 million (US$850,000) in a seed funding round led by Aetius Capital and ACE & Company, a private equity firm also known for having invested in financial comparison site CompareAsia and online payments startup TransferWise. New York-based investment firm One Zero Capital also participated in the round. Toast, which rebranded from CryptoSigma in July, uses blockchain technology to power remittances and is primarily targeting Southeast Asia. The startup seeks to solve the numerous inefficiencies with the way money is sent by overseas workers, founder and CEO Aaron Siwoku, said. “This is a local problem…

Startupbootcamp Fintech Singapore has announced new partnerships with Malaysia’s RHB Banking Group and CIMB Group that aim at giving startups in the program access to the region’s markets. “As we see fintech [taking off] across the region, not just Singapore, it is good to have a partner with a regional footprint in Southeast Asia, in countries like Thailand and Indonesia,” Marck Gnick, co-founder and global chief operating officer of Startupbootcamp Fintech said. Gnick added: “This gives our startups reach into these markets, and they can leverage the [banks’] networks.” These partnerships also highlight the need for more collaboration between fintech…

The Bitcoin protocol has caught the eye of many. Financial institutions are exploring how they could possibly use distributed ledger technology for institutional banking; startups are finding new ways to use the blockchain for anything from identification, to document certification. But still, what exactly can we do with Bitcoin? Today, we take a closer look at two startups that are utilizing Bitcoin for two completely different purposes. Micropayments Because bitcoins can be transferred easily and almost instantly in a peer-to-peer manner, many have argued that the cryptocurrency fits just perfectly for micropayments. One startup, namely ChangeTip, went viral back…

Self-proclaimed the ‘Tinder of crowdfunding,’ OFF3R is the world’s first mobile crowdfunding aggregator that allows users to quickly discover and review all the hot opportunities and campaigns ongoing. Taking a similar approach as the world’s most popular dating app, OFF3R promises to apply the Tinderish thumb swipe to equity crowdfunding investment campaigns to widen the deal flow funnel. The app pulls in campaign content from multiple equity crowdfunding platforms at launch to let investors maximize their exposure to businesses they might be interested in investing in. Launched in June, OFF3R, formerly Tendr, currently aggregates investment deals from 12 equity crowdfunding…

Operated by Ripple Gateway Pte Ltd, Ripple Singapore is a Ripple gateway that uses the Ripple network to acquire, store and convert precious metals into any currency. Launched in January 2014, the service is Singapore’s first major Ripple gateway and the first in the world that allows customers to deposit and withdraw gold, silver and currencies into and out of the Ripple payment network. Users can either acquire bullion directly via the company’s ‘Bullion Counter,’ or indirectly from other users. Users maintain a balance in a Ripple wallet, while bullions are vaulted in Singapore. The company has partnered with Silver…

“From payments to wealth management, from peer-to-peer lending to crowdfunding, a new generation of startups is taking aim at the heart of the industry,” has said the Economist, describing the ‘Fintech Revolution.’ And what better place than Singapore, the finance hub of Southeast Asia, to have that revolution emerge? Singapore brings a wealth of expertise, funding opportunities and market access that is beneficial for every fast growing fintech startup. Plus, the city-state is certainly not short on quality startups accelerators and incubators. Here’s a list of 10 Fintech Accelerators and Incubators that will help passionate fintech entrepreneurs take their projects and ventures…

Vietnam’s Ahamove, an Uber-like service for logistics, seeks to disrupt the current business models and address the country’s logistics sector’s “severe fragmentation and inefficiency,” according to Phuoc Tran, Co-Founder and Operation Manager at Ahamove. Similarly to Uber, Ahamove provides users with a platform where truck drivers and consumers can connect. Such a platform not only allows massive process simplification, but also allows consumers to benefit from lower services costs. In an exclusive interview with Fintechnnews.sg, Tran shares the story behind Ahamove, their purposes, the challenges they had to overcome, and their plans for the coming months. Fintechnews.sg: Can you please…

Mobile payments app MoMo is experiencing rapid growth and currently stands as the most downloaded application in the Apple Store Vietnam. According to Manh Tuong Nguyen, Vice President at M_Service, the company behind MoMo, the app has been seeing 30 to 50% growth per month in terms of transaction volume and user base. “MoMo is growing beyond expectations,” Nguyen told VNExpress. “MoMo serves over one million customers monthly who use our money transfer services and mobile payments.” As mobile payments apps are quickly increasing in number, with large tech firms already releasing products such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, competitive…

Cryptocurrency will still face many challenges but is here to say, according to ‘Big Four’ advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In a recent whitepaper, the firm claims that the technology “has the potential to open the door for revolutionary possibilities.” Entitled ‘Money is no object: Understanding the evolving cryptocurrency market,’ the report aims to provide an update on the current cryptocurrency market as well as a look into the technology’s future. PwC has spent over two years monitoring the sector, assigning its own professionals from around the world to analyze and assess cryptocurrency’s impact. Blockchain could introduce major changes across multiple…

In the ASEAN region, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) still have limited access to financing. Despite their critical economic role in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore, the segment represents a major untapped opportunity for banks and financial institutions, according to a new report. In a joint report entitled ‘Digital banking for small and medium-sized enterprises: Improving access to finance for the underserved,’ Deloitte and Visa address the poor financial inclusion of SMEs in the ASEAN region, as well as how new business models offered by challenger banks and fintech startups can address their financial and…

Japanese startup BankGuard has developed a new security system for the online banking industry that addresses weaknesses of current technologies on man-in-the-middle attacks. Entitled the SuperMatrix, this patented two-factor authentication solution is reinventing banking security by utilizing images rather than numeric one-time passwords, that are either printed or affixed as a sticker on the back of a bank card or credit card. Firstly, the user authentication step requires selecting the relevant images as displayed on the printed random number chart. Then, the transaction authentication step requires selecting the image corresponding to the final digits of the online remittance destination bank…

Aside from popular news services there are many financial professionals, venture capitalists and technologists who decide to start and maintain a blog. They share their knowledge and insights on cutting-edge technologies. Unlike news services, these individuals offer lengthy analysis and guidance on particular topics that could well be digital currencies, mobile payments, remittances or peer-to-peer lending. If you aren’t yet following one of these experts, here is a list of 15 Fintech Blogs you can start with that will give you greater understanding of the hottest and most disruptive technologies and business models that will likely dramatically change the way we…

If you want to keep up with the fast-moving fintech industry, here’s a list of our top 10 fintech news sites and blogs you can follow for the latest trends, news and events. Whether you are looking for sharp opinion pieces or breaking news, you will most certainly find your fit in the list below. Btw: we hope that for Fintech Singapore and South East Asia Fintech News you will also add our site www.FintechNews.SG to your bookmarks. Here it goes: (just click on the Logo to get to the page) Top 10 Fintech News Sites and Blogs. Also have a look…

SWIFT’s Innotribe has wrapped up its worldwide 2015 Startup Challenge competition and has selected 12 early-stage and 8 growth-stage finalists for the grand finale organized during Sibos on October 14 in Singapore. Launched by SWIFT in 2011, the Innotribe Startup Challenge seeks to “bridge the gap between the financial services industry and today’s brightest startups,” by organizing regional competitions and showcases around the globe. This year, these competitions took place in London, New York, Cape Town and Singapore, where the organization picked what it considered as being the 20 most promising fintech ideas and startups. These startups will now compete…