Author: Fintech News Singapore

Global cross-border payments firm Thunes is speeding up its global expansion by setting up a regional hub in Miami to expand into new Latin American markets. Thunes has established regional payout partnerships that are available in 16 Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay. It recently launched partnerships with Brazil’s Bexs Banco to enable real-time businesses and customers inbound payments to Brazil. Thunes collections capabilities cover 90+ alternative payment options in the region, including Boleto in Brazil, Rapipago in Argentina, and SafetyPay in Colombia. The increased flexibility enables more options for businesses and consumers to make…

The Central Provident Fund Board (CPF) has collaborated with OCBC and GovTech to launch the GovCash which replaces cheque issuance for Singaporeans who are unable to use direct bank crediting. This will allow them to receive government payouts more quickly and conveniently. According to CPF, up to 40,000 Singaporeans will be spared from queueing at bank branches to encash some 500,000 cheques annually. With GovCash, Singaporeans can withdraw the government payouts in cash starting with over 500 OCBC ATMs located across the country. GovCash has adopted the Singpass facial verification technology to authenticate users, including a liveness-detection capability that blocks…

Amber Group, a global digital asset platform, announced that it has secured US$200 million in a Series B+ round led by investment company Temasek, valuing the company at US$3 billion. This is a significant follow-up to Amber Group’s US$100 million Series B round last year, bringing its total capital raised to US$328 million. Existing shareholders including Sequoia China, Pantera Capital, Tiger Global Management, Tru Arrow Partners, and Coinbase Ventures among others had also participated in the round. The firm will be making key hires to support its institutional business in Europe and the Americas with the new funds. Amber Group…

M-DAQ, a platform that prices and trades exchange-traded products in a multitude of currencies, has signed an agreement to acquire Wallex, a B2B cross-border payments provider with licenses in Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore. In addition to the amount paid for the full acquisition, M-DAQ will also be injecting fresh working capital to accelerate Wallex’s business. The combined entity is expected to process in the excess of S$15 billion (US$11 billion) of Gross Transaction Value this year. Wallex will continue as an independently operated business and brand, with Hiro Kiga, Co-Founder and COO, appointed as the new CEO. Through Wallex,…

2021 was a blockbuster year for global fintech funding, exits and unicorn minting, a trend that was also observed in the Indian fintech landscape where players raised a new record of US$6.9 billion, new data released by the Digital Fifth, a fintech consulting and advisory firm in India, show. Armed with fresh funding, India’s established and well-funded startups went on acquisition sprees, snapping up smaller outfits to expand their offerings and explore new markets. Some 30 fintech acquisitions were recorded for the year, according to the advisory firm, with Cred, Open and M2P Fintech being amongst the most prolific. Cred,…

Singapore has long been praised for being a forward-thinking, progressive jurisdiction that supports technology and innovation. This has enticed a horde of cryptocurrency and blockchain startups to set up shop in the nation, lured by its seemingly openness to the industry. However, these companies are now facing roadblocks and finding it rather challenging to operate in the city-state. Just a couple of weeks ago, operators of crypto ATMs were forced to shut down their machines after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) outlawed cash-to-crypto terminals. The move is part of a wider crackdown on advertising cryptocurrencies to the general public,…

The healthtech Singapore sector has risen consistently over the past years, but the COVID-19 pandemic undeniably accelerated that growth, acting as a catalyst for investment in an already burgeoning sector. In 2021, global healthtech companies raised a record of US$51.3 billion, up 280% from 2016 levels, data from London promotional agency London & Partners and Dealroom show. That growth was driven by booming adoption of healthtech solutions as COVID-19 normalized the use of digital solutions and transformed healthcare norms. Today, healthcare providers are using technology for more effective medical intervention and improved healthcare outcomes, hospitals are leveraging data analytics for…

Though in-person, physical events are back in full force this year, many organizers have embraced virtual events, attracted by their ability to reach a broader world from all parts of the world. For those located in Asia-Pacific (APAC), we’ve selected 13 fintech webinars and virtual events that are just around the corner to watch live. Innovate Your KYC to Combat Identity Crimes in the Financial Industry and Beyond February 23, 2022, 11:00 – 12:00 (GMT+8) As more Filipinos shift to digital banking, there has also been a significant rise in scams and fraud cases. From 2019 to 2021, Bangko Sentral…

These past few years have seen the exponential growth of the buy now, pay later (BNPL) arrangements, a trend that’s been fueled by the accelerated digital shift, and the surge in e-commerce activity. Now, that burgeoning industry is showing no signs of slowing down. Bloomberg Intelligence senior industry analysts estimate that global sales using BNPL could top US$181 billion by 2022, up by more than 40% from US$93 billion in 2020. This could push penetration to 4% of retail e-commerce versus just 1.6% in 2020, indicating that although BNPL options still account for a tiny portion of e-commerce sales, adoption…

The upcoming growth in decentralized finance (DeFi) will be driven by the ability to embed DeFi applications into the open metaverse. This concept, which venture capital (VC) firm Outlier Ventures refers to as MetaFi, or metaverse finance, will act as the infrastructure layer that unlocks value native to the metaverse, enabling financial inclusion for the creators, gamers and digital natives taking part in this open virtual environment. In a new report, the VC firm delves into what MetaFi is and explores some of the emerging trends shaping the space. MetaFi is defined as “an all-encompassing term for the protocols, products…

Singapore Japan Mobile Labs (SJ Mobile Labs), a new venture focused on fintech innovation in the Japanese market, has raised a US$ 2.85 million seed round. The round was led by Saison Capital and joined by Apis Insurtech Fund I and Anthemis Group. The company had recently appointed Yasunori Kume as its Chief Operating Officer and Koshi Watanabe as its Head Of Legal Compliance. Additionally, SJ Mobile Labs has appointed several advisors, including Masashi Yamashita who was previously at Lawson Bank and Shinsei Bank, and Shigesuke Kashiwagi of EQT, previously at Schroders and Nomura Holdings. SJ Mobile Labs was created…

Huawei has partnered with Singaporean payments service provider Aleta Planet to enable its users to make digital payments with the new AP-1 / Huawei Pay UnionPay card. According to Aleta Planet, the AP-1 UnionPay virtual card can be easily added to the Huawei phones and is capable of making contactless and QR payments. The card allows Huawei users to pay, remit, and collect payments through the UnionPay network. UnionPay’s Contactless payment is accepted at 29 million merchant point-of-sale terminals in 93 markets. Meanwhile, the UnionPay QR Code payment is accepted at 31 million merchants in 45 countries and regions. Towards…

DBS announced that it is committing an additional SGD 100 million to the DBS Foundation which will expand its efforts in helping social enterprises and businesses-for-impact to grow. The funds will enable these startups to grow from the ideation stage to become full-fledged businesses and empower them to tackle social and environmental issues Established in 2014, the DBS Foundation is dedicated to championing social entrepreneurship to support the growth of innovative businesses-for-impact. Since then, the foundation has given out over SGD 10 million in grants to more than 90 such businesses in the region, and nurtured 800 others through its…

Google. That’s the first thing most of us think of when we are looking for a piece of information. Googling acts as the first stop for most people on the start of their cryptocurrency journeys to learn the basic and pick up trends in the space. Google’s year in search for 2021 provides an overview of some of the most popular trends, captivating moments and events that had shaped our time last year. It gives us a solid overview of what interests the public the most about the cryptocurrency industry. To do this, Luno has scoured through a list of…

OCBC Bank has rolled out a kill switch that enables customers to immediately freeze all their current and savings accounts in the event of a scam. The kill switch can be activated via the bank’s official contact number or at about 500 standalone OCBC Bank ATMs. The feature will be available on all OCBC’s ATMs by March 2022. The kill switch enables customers to immediately freeze all their current and savings accounts including joint accounts, ATM access, debit and credit cards, and digital banking, as well as OCBC Pay Anyone app access, if they suspect they are a victim of…

Singaporean insurtech unicorn bolttech has completed the acquisition of AVA Insurance Brokers and AVA Insurance Agency, a Singapore-based insurance intermediary and specialist broker. The acquisition of AVA will accelerate the deployment of bolttech’s insurance exchange in Singapore, connecting insurers, distributors and customers, making it easier and more efficient to buy and sell insurance. Yen Yen Koh, General Manager for bolttech in Singapore, will oversee AVA’s operations, which will be integrated with bolttech and subsequently rebranded later this year. The change in ownership has no impact on AVA’s service to its partners or customers, and the existing team will remain intact…

Akulaku, an Indonesian Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) player, announced that it has received US$100 million from the Siam Commercial Bank (SCB). This follows Akulaku’s successful fundraise of US$125 million in 2021 that was co-led by Silverhorn Group who was an existing investor as well as financing partner since 2018. Founded in 2016, Akulaku has disbursed over US$2.2 billion of credit in 2021 to over 6 million users. The company’s bank subsidiary, Bank Neo Commerce (BNC), also completed a public rights issue on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for approximately US$175 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Building on that…

Wise, an online money transfer service, announced that it is further deepening its presence in Singapore with plans to hire 150 roles over the year in the country. The Singapore office, which relocated to a larger space last year, is the company’s APAC hub and will be hiring across a number of functions. This includes roles in engineering, product development, design, analytics, compliance, payments and other operations to drive product development and expansion in APAC and around the world. Wise had recently introduced a new minimum standard for its global leave policy — including up to 18 weeks of fully…

Funding Societies, a Southeast Asian SME digital financing platform which goes by Modalku in Indonesia, today announced that it has raised US$144 million in an oversubscribed Series C+ equity round. The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with new investors notably Vietnamese tech giant VNG Corporation, Rapyd Ventures, Asia-based global investor EDBI, Indies Capital, K3 Ventures, and Ascend Vietnam Ventures. The company also received US$150 million in debt lines from institutional lenders across Europe, the United States, and Asia, some of which have been drawn down since 2021. This comes on the back of its US$45 million Series…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said that it has no plans to regulate activities in relation to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) according to a parliamentary reply. According to Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Minister in charge of MAS, the regulator “does not and cannot possibly regulate all things or products that people choose to invest their money in”. NFTs are a form of digital token where each token has distinct and unique features that are verified and secured by blockchain technology. While NFTs can be used to represent any underlying asset, they have for now been mainly used to tokenise…