Author: Fintech News Singapore

Tranglo, a cross-border payment processing hub, announced that it received new approvals from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to provide account issuance, domestic money transfer and e-money issuance services. The license was granted under the Payment Services Act (PSA) which ensures compliance of anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing regulations. This allows Tranglo to perform the additional services are a boost to the rapidly expanding capabilities of its cross-border payment network which is fully regulated by 4 authorities and covers over 22 countries. Some of the payment corridors immediately enhanced with the new functions are the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and…

In recent days, special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, have been growing in popularity among founders who are keen to take their companies public in a faster way than traditional initial public offerings (IPOs). Grab, the Singapore-headquartered mobile technology company, announced in April 2021 its plans to go public through a merger with a SPAC, Altimeter Growth Corp for a value of $39.6 billion. Grab expects to complete the business combination in the fourth quarter of 2021. Tan Hooi Ling, the co-founder of Grab explained that although the firm opted to go public in the United States so it can…

Singaporean blockchain development company Hashstacs (STACS) announced that it is joining Mastercard’s new global startup engagement programme Start Path. The programme is dedicated to supporting fast-growing blockchain and digital assets companies. STACS said in a statement that it is one of the only two companies representing Singapore in the inaugural batch, and one of seven globally. Amongst the seven companies selected, STACS will be focused on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) fintech by enabling enhanced ESG finance and high quality carbon credits. Together with Mastercard, STACS will seek to expand and accelerate innovation around digital asset technology and make it…

The global pandemic forced people, even the less tech-savvy ones, to shift from a physical world to a virtual one. Whether it was shopping or team meetings at work, almost overnight, they were shifted to digital mediums. While everyone hopes that the world will start to normalise soon, thanks to the arrival of vaccines, some of these habits acquired during the pandemic will outlast the virus. One of these habit is usage of digital payment methods. Money transactions that predominantly took place with cash have been majorly replaced by digital payments methods amid the pandemic. Most digital payment methods have witnessed…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) will take place from 8 to 12 November, as a hybrid digital and physical event. A company limited by guarantee (CLG) will also be incorporated to spearhead future growth of the SFF and lead a series of new initiatives to provide year-round engagement with the global fintech community. The first three days of the SFF will feature a hybrid conference and exhibition. Meanwhile, on 11 and 12 November, participants can attend global satellite events and industry events online and at physical locations. The SFF 2021 is being…

Huawei held its first virtual Asia-Pacific Intelligent Finance Summit 2021 with the theme “Accelerate Digital Transformation in Banking, New Value Together” on 29 July 2021. As economies across the Asia-Pacific region continue to recover and rebound, leading banks and financial institutions are accelerating digital transformation, seizing new digitalisation opportunities to reinvent themselves for what the future holds. This event attracted more than 1,300 financial industry customers, partners, industry experts and media across Asia-Pacific regions. Huawei invited its core customers and partners from the  financial industry which includes the likes of BDO Unibank, KASIKORN Business – Technology Group (KBTG), PwC and…

Strong growth in e-commerce has been a catalyst to the boom of buy now, pay later (BNPL) and other alternative payment methods. By 2024, it’s estimated that BNPL arrangements will account for 4.2% of global e-commerce payment methods, according a new report by fintech-focused investment banking firm Financial Technology Partners (FT Partners). BNPL arrangements will jump two places, becoming the 5th most used e-commerce payment method by 2024, behind digital and mobile wallets, credit cards, debit cards and bank transfers. The move will come on the back of declining usage of cash on delivery and charge and deferred debit card…

Rapyd, a Fintech-as-a-Service company which provides APIs that helps integrate local payments and fintech capabilities, announced a US$300 million Series E funding round led by Target Global. Joining the round are several new investors including funds managed by Fidelity Management and Research Company, Altimeter Capital, Whale Rock Capital, BlackRock Funds, and Dragoneer, along with participation from existing investors; General Catalyst, Latitude, Durable Capital Partners, Tal Capital, Avid Ventures, and Spark Capital. The financing comes shortly after Rapyd’s acquisition of Valitor, a European payments and card issuing company, for US$100 million, and the launch of Rapyd Ventures, the company’s venture arm.…

Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve has received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to operate as a regulated provider for digital payment token (DPT) services. According to a statement from the Independent Reserve, the firm said that it is one of the first virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to obtain an in-principle approval letter for a major payment institution license in Singapore. In the interest of promoting consumer safety in the digital assets industry, areas of particular interest to MAS throughout the application process included customer protection mechanisms, transaction screening, robustness of IT services, compliance structures, and…

Startup competitions are the perfect platform for young and promising startups to gain international exposure, funding and mentorship. During these events, startup founders get to pitch to multiple investors, gain visibility, connect with industry leaders, and get valuable feedback. With physical events steadily coming back around the world, we’ve compiled a list of ongoing awards and startup competitions for fintech startups to apply for ASAP. The Search, Global Startups Tour – Fintech Abu Dhabi 2021 June – October 2021 Between June and October 2021, the Fintech Abu Dhabi Innovation Team will search the globe for the most innovative and inspiring…

Matrixport, a digital assets financial services platform that is a spin-off of Bitmain, has closed its US$129 million Series C funding round with a valuation of over US$1 billion two years since its inception. The Singapore-based startup has raised US$129 million to date. This round was led by partners of DST Global, C Ventures and K3 Ventures with other participants including Qiming Venture Partners, CE Innovation Capital, Tiger Global, Cachet Group, Palm Drive Capital, Foresight Ventures and A&T Capital, along with earlier investors Lightspeed, Polychain, Dragonfly Capital, CMT Digital and IDG Capital. With this funding, Matrixport plans to further invest…

DBS and Temasek announced that they have entered into an agreement to jointly launch a US$500 million growth stage debt financing platform called EvolutionX Debt Capital. Headquartered in Singapore, EvolutionX will provide non-dilutive financing to growth stage technology-enabled companies across Asia, with a focus on China, India, and Southeast Asia. EvolutionX combines Temasek’s investment expertise and DBS’ global banking networks to leverage and further catalyse the fast growing technology ecosystem in Asia. The platform will be led by Joint Interim CEOs Amit Sinha, Group Head of Telecoms, Media and Technology, Institutional Banking Group at DBS, and Aftab Mathur, Director, Investment…

The ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN) announced the appointment of H.E Serey Chea, Prof. Olayinka David-West as advisors and Latha Ayyar as an independent director to its board. Through their respective roles, they will bring in invaluable expertise in financial platforms, innovation and digital technologies to propel the growth of AFIN and its flagship product, API Exchange (APIX). APIX is a global cloud-based digital platform with a focus on financial inclusion, that enables financial institutions and fintechs to discover one another on a curated global marketplace, design experiments collaboratively in the sandbox and deploy innovative solutions rapidly at a lower…

Mambu, a SaaS cloud banking platform, has unveiled a fully digital solution for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lenders that cuts costs and speeds time to market. The platform provides banks and fintechs with robust, scalable loan management technology as well as access to an ecosystem of partners such as web-based identity authentication, credit checks and loan origination. These partners are vital to lenders wanting to offer speedy loan approvals. According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), it’s estimated that there is an unmet financing need of US$5.2 trillion every year across 65 million firms, or 40% of formal micro,…

SEBA Bank, a digital assets firm with a Swiss banking license from FINMA, announced the appointment of Sam Lin as its Chief Executive Officer for Asia with immediate effect. This appointment is in line with SEBA Bank’s aim to strengthen the offering of its digital asset banking services in Asia demand for institutional-grade digital asset banking services in the region accelerates. SEBA Bank had previously raised US$22.5 million in a Series B funding round to support its expansion efforts. With over 15 years of experience in investment banking at Credit Suisse and Barclays, Sam is a highly experienced wealth management…

Swiss core banking solution provider Avaloq has announced a combination of senior promotions from within its Asia-Pacific business, to reflect the region’s growing prominence in its growth strategy. Gery Dachlan has been appointed as Managing Director for South Asia and Australia, while Pascal Wengi has been appointed as Managing Director for the North Asia region. Gery Dachlan, formerly Avaloq’s Market Head of South Asia and Japan, who was responsible for driving Avaloq’s business development and expanding key relationships in the region, has now been promoted to Managing Director for South Asia and Australia in the company’s client success and sales…

Validus, a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), announced that it had exceeded S$1 billion in disbursals across the region. The firm said that this development comes as it enters its sixth year of operations. In a previous finding from Validus’ Economic Impact Report, over 300,000 Singaporeans had directly or indirectly benefited from Validus’ SME financing platform. Validus was approved as a Participating Financial Institution (PFI) under Enterprise Singapore’s Enterprise Financing Scheme alongside local banks and established financial institutions. Founded in 2015 to drive inclusive growth for SMEs and local economies in the region, Validus connects…

SWIFT announces the launch of SWIFT Go, a new service that enables small businesses and consumers to send fast, low-cost cross-border payments anywhere in the world, direct from their bank accounts. Seven leading global banks are now using SWIFT Go live; BBVA, Bank of New York Mellon, DNB, MYBank, Sberbank, Société Générale, and UniCredit. SWIFT Go enables financial institutions to offer a seamless payments experience for low value transactions often initiated by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to pay suppliers overseas and by consumers sending money to friends and family internationally. Using tighter service level agreements between institutions and pre-validation…

The Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub Singapore Center and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published a proposed blueprint to enhance the global payments network connectivity via multilateral linkages of countries’ national retail payment systems. Titled Project Nexus, this blueprint outlines how countries can fully integrate their retail payment systems onto a single cross-border network, allowing customers to make cross-border transfers instantly and securely. According to a statement from MAS, “this blueprint will bring like-minded regulators and instant payments operators along with global bodies like the G20 and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) together to make…

New York-based digital asset custodian Fireblocks announced that it has raised US$310 million in a Series D funding round, boosting the company’s valuation to US$2 billion. The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital, Stripes, Spark Capital, Coatue, DRW VC and SCB 10X, the venture arm of Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, whose investment marks the third global bank to invest in Fireblocks alongside BNY Mellon and SVB Capital. While continuing its strategic expansion, Fireblocks intends to scale all business lines, adding more customers and partners to its ecosystem. Since its inception in 2019, Fireblocks has raised a cumulative total of US$489…