Ascend Money, has hit US$1.5 billion valuation following its latest US$150 million funding, making it Thailand’s first fintech unicorn. The funds will be used to grow the user base of its e-wallet application; TrueMoney Wallet and to expand digital financial services, including digital lending, digital investment and cross-border remittances across Southeast Asia. US-based investment firm Bow Wave Capital Management has contributed to this round, joining Charoen Pokphand Group and Ant Group. Founded in 2013, Ascend Money is a fintech company with a regional presence across six SEA countries — Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The company operates…
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Y-Combinator-backed Aspire announced today they have raised US$ 158 million in their Series B round. Founded in 2018 by Lazada founders and former executives, Aspire provides “all-in-one financial services” to entrepreneurs and has served over 10,000 businesses across South East Asia. The oversubscribed US$ 158 Million round was led by an undisclosed global growth equity firm together with DST Global Partners, CE Innovation Fund, B Capital Partners, and global hedge fund Fasanara Capital. Existing investors, including Hummingbird Ventures, Mass Mutual Ventures, Picus Capital, and AFG also participated in the round. A series of successful fintech founders such as Taavet Hinrikus…
2C2P a payments platform today announced new partnerships in Vietnam and Cambodia to expand its Thai cross-border remittance service, easy2send. In Vietnam 2C2P will team up with Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), one of Vietnam’s top five joint stock commercial banks by assets. Meanwhile in Cambodia 2C2P will work with eMoney Payment Solutions, one of the nation’s leading mobile wallet providers. With the latest partnerships, they said users will be able to access a convenient, affordable, secure and nearly instant money transfer service from Thailand to Vietnam as well as Cambodia. Currently, there are 1.8 million Cambodians and more than…
In Asia-Pacific (APAC), super-apps are not only redefining consumers expectations in banking; these platforms are straight out leading the digital banking race, according to a new report by Swiss digital banking tech provider Banking, Payments: Context (BPC) and Dutch fintech consultancy firm Fincog. The report, titled Digital Banking in Asia Pacific, looks at the state of digital banking in APAC, provides an overview of the sector, and takes a deep dive into APAC’s super-apps, highlighting how some of them have turned into the region’s most successful digital banks. Super-apps are a new breed of tech giants originating from APAC. Over…
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced both consumers and merchants to embrace online channels and digital payments at an accelerated pace, a shift that presented new sets of challenges, including rising fraud and security risks. Separate surveys conducted by payment network Visa and online fraud specialist Vesta found that online merchants and shoppers are most concerned about security. In Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, 41%, 33% and 32% of online shoppers, respectively, named safety and security amongst their top worries, according to the Vesta survey, which polled more than 4,300 online shoppers in these three markets. Similarly, the Visa Back to…
Banks across Asia Pacific are lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to digitisation, with less than one third of banks in the region describing their digital transformation strategies as advanced or mature according to a new research report from the Financial Times Focus (FT Focus) and SaaS cloud banking platform Mambu titled “Evolve or be extinct”. The research report which surveyed 500 senior banking executives from around the world, also identified that the risk of failing to transform digitally is well understood, with two in three banks believing they will lose market share in just two…
In Asia-Pacific (APAC), embedded wealth is a US$32 billion opportunity per annum which financial institutions are eager to tap into. These are actively exploring the possibility to embed wealth services into third-party e-commerce and travel platforms to improve their revenue streams and tap into these platforms’ massive customer bases, according to a new report by Swiss digital wealth firm Additiv. Embedded wealth refers to the offering of regulated wealth products by a non-wealth entity. It translates to the integration of, for example, a third-party online wealth management service into a neobanking platform, and a savings product into a human resources…
InvestaX, a Singapore-headquartered online investment and trading platform for Digital Securities (DSO) and Security Tokens (STO), launches its exchange in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) sandbox. The company said that its entry in the sandbox provides a one-stop shop solution for the issuance and trading of digital securities, for global products and investors. InvestaX holds a Capital Markets Services license (CMSL) to deal in securities by MAS which allows the company to facilitate the primary offer and issuance of securities and act as an intermediary between issuers and investors. The company also holds a regulatory exemption under the Financial…
Dash PET by Etiqa Insurance, an insurance savings plan created in partnership with Singtel Dash and Etiqa Insurance, has been helping users save better by providing access to high-returns savings in a low-interest environment since February 2021. From 9 September, Dash PET users can opt in to earn additional 0.2% p.a. on their savings and get free insurance coverage for the first year of their Dash PET policy. Keenly aware that savings and protection go hand in hand, Dash PET is providing selected policyholders a headstart on their personal finance journey with a complimentary coverage of up to S$50,000 for…
The Royal Monetary Authority (RMA), Bhutan’s central bank, announced that it will pilot a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in phases with Ripple’s CBDC solution. Building atop the country’s payments infrastructure and capabilities, this new initiative will tap Ripple’s CBDC solution to support seamless retail, cross-border and wholesale payment use cases for a digital Ngultrum. The RMA believes that easier, faster and more affordable payments, both domestically and internationally, will help it reach its goal of increasing financial inclusion by 85% by 2023. In addition to the technology, Ripple said that its commitment to sustainability was important for Bhutan which…
Übank, Vietnamese digital bank powered by VPBank, has partnered with digital banking software provider Backbase to leverage its cloud solution to enhance the bank’s mobile banking experiences and offerings. The digital bank reportedly managed to release of nearly 50 new features in just one month, thanks to the partnership with Backbase. Übank is the first digital bank in Asia Pacific to leverage “Backbase-as-a-Service”, using its retail banking functionalities for its digital banking app. Together with Backbase, Übank intends to increase its customer base to more than 5 million by 2025. The collaboration will also allow Übank to get a 360-degree…
Fave, a fintech platform providing QR payments to restaurants and retailers, has announced a partnership with Google Pay to offer cashback to its Singaporean users. Merchants will now be able to connect with Google Pay users via the FavePay SGQR and will be able to extend their loyalty cashback to more customers, reconcile them under one FaveBiz platform along with Fave, DBS PayLah!, and Singtel Dash’s digital payment platforms. Through the partnership with Fave, users of Google Pay can now scan any FavePay SGQR, and earn up to 20 percent cashback across 15,000 F&B outlets and retailers. Fave said that…
Singapore’s multi-currency travel wallet YouTrip announced that it will be establishing an innovation lab in the country to fast-track its technology capabilities and product development. YouTrip’s expanded workforce in the innovation lab will be crucial in driving the development of a new suite of multi-currency products and features which includes YouTrip Business, a new multi-currency corporate credit card. Additionally, the company will also be undergoing a brand refresh. Both of this are in its development stage and scheduled to be launched in early 2022. In this next phase of its business growth, YouTrip will be doubling its local workforce with…
Singaporean payments firm Spenmo has raised US$34 million in an oversubscribed Series A investment round. It is touted to be the largest Series A round closed for a Y Combinator-backed company in Southeast Asia. The round was led by New York-based private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners. Rebecca Liu-Doyle, principal at Insight Partners, will be joining Spenmo’s board of directors. Other participants include Lee Fixel’s Addition, Salesforce Ventures, Alpha JWC, Global Founders’ Capital, Broadhaven, Operator Partners and Commerce Ventures. Aside from the institutional funds, several angel investors including William Hockey (Founder of Plaid), Andy Cohen (Ex-SVP of Sales,…
Singapore-based digital asset management startup TradeTogether is on track to launch a series of pocket fund strategies for accredited investors to invest in the cryptocurrency space. Its robo-advisory solution helps clients pre-select their portfolios through an application. At the same time, their team of fund managers focus on delivering targeted returns for customers based on their risk preferences. Geoff Ira will serve as Chief Executive Officer and Jordan Ko as Chief Strategy Officer of TradeTogether. The duo were former colleagues at SC Ventures and has a combined experience of three decades in the corporate and investment banking and IT industries.…
Singaporean insurtech unicorn bolttech has extended its recently-announced US$180 million series A funding round, bringing the series total to US$210 million. The previous round which was led by Activant Capital Group now adds two new strategic investors, Singapore-based global investor EDBI and Spain’s Alma Mundi Insurtech Fund. bolttech said that bringing on these new strategic investors will also help strengthen its presence in Southeast Asia, Europe, and its other existing markets, as the business accelerates its international growth strategy. The company powers connections between insurers, distributors, and customers to make it easier and more efficient to buy and sell insurance and…
The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) is ramping up innovation efforts, tapping into technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and APIs to provide finance professionals with more accurate market intelligence, deeper insights and facilitate regulatory compliance. These efforts are being undertaken by the newly announced LSEG Labs, a network of innovation labs that work with the group’s customers and partners to apply strategic analysis, emerging technology, data science and design thinking to solve pressing problems faced by the financial industry. Out of the seven projects currently being undertaken, three are newer ones that the…
In H1 2021, fintech funding in Asia-Pacific surged to US$5.56 billion, more than double the same period last year. The figure puts the year 2021 well on track to surpass pre-COVID-19 levels during which fintechs in APAC raised a total of US$9.3 billion in 2019, according to a new report by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Increased digital adoption catalyzed by the pandemic has resulted in APAC’s fintech startups raising mega-rounds to accelerate growth and prompted the more mature ones to go on acquisition sprees. Indian payment gateway Razorpay announced a US$160 million in Series E funding round in April after…
Mobile app usage habits and trends have seen a drastic uptick amid COVID-19 and lockdown measures. In Asia-Pacific (APAC), fintech mobile app installs grew 36% in 2019-2020 and 18% in 2020-H1 2021, the second highest growth rates for the period across four key mobile app verticals, according to a report by Adjust, a mobile attribution and analytics company. The Mobile App Trends 2021: A focus on APAC report looks at emerging trends in seven major APAC markets – India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam –, and delves into four key mobile app verticals, namely hyper casual gaming,…
Singaporean cross-border payments firm Thunes has appointed Irina Chuchkina as Chief Marketing Officer and Babul Balakrishnan as Head of Customer Care to support its global growth strategy. These appointments follow the announcement of Thunes’ acquisition of Limonetik, a European Payment Methods Platform, which complements existing Thunes’ cross-border payments solutions in 115 countries by enabling businesses to get paid in 70 countries. Chuchkina is an accomplished Fintech marketing leader with over 15 years of experience building world-class brands on the intersection of payments and technology across Europe and Asia. She will lead Thunes’ global marketing strategy laying the foundations of competitive…