Bambu, a Singapore-based provider of digital wealth technology, today announced the close of a US$10 million in a Series B funding round. Third-time investor Franklin Templeton co-led the investment along with new investor PEAK6 Strategic Capital LLC, which is headquartered in Chicago. The digital wealth space in Singapore is heating up as investment dollars are flowing into start-ups in this space, in the same week as Bambu’s announcement, another robo advisor, Stashaway has also raised $US 12 Million in its Series B Round. With the fresh funding, Bambu can take on new opportunities and reach a wider B2B audience through…
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iFast, an internet based investment product distribution platform is reportedly in talks with potential partners pursue a digital banking license in Singapore. Announced late last month, Singapore is looking at issuing up to 5 digital banking licenses; two of which will be full digital banking licenses and three digital wholesale licenses that will cater to SMEs and other non-retail segments. iFast is far for the only one with a keen interest in the digital banking license, since the framework was announced, many players like Grab, InstaReM, Validus, RazerPay and Singtel all shared similar ambitions. A report by Singapore Business Review…
Grab announced today it will invest US$2 billion into Indonesia over a period of five years with the capital invested by SoftBank, to accelerate the development of the country’s digital infrastructure. The investment will go towards creating a next-generation transportation network for cities and transforming how critical services, like healthcare, are delivered. The initiatives were announced after a meeting between Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group, Anthony Tan, CEO of Grab and Ridzki Kramadibrata, President of Grab Indonesia, at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta. SoftBank, which invested US$1.46 billion in Grab earlier this year,…
StashAway, a robo-advisor for both retail and accredited investors, has completed a USD$12 million (SGD$16.4 million) Series B round led by Eight Roads Ventures, the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International. Asia Capital & Advisors, the private equity firm led by Francis Rozario and Aaron Rozario, also participated. Asia Capital & Advisors invested in StashAway’s Pre-Series A and Series A. This round brings StashAway’s total funds raised to date to USD$20.4 million. In a statement to the media, StashAway claims that tens of thousands of people of 125 nationalities and living in 77 countries have opened an account and used…
Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Group announced that they have secured the necessary regulatory approval to operate in Thailand. The group expects that their platform will go live latest by September 2019. “Huobi is one of the largest exchanges in the world by trading volume and has six years of experience providing safe and secure operations in digital asset trading. Our mission in Thailand is to provide Thai users with secure and reliable digital asset trading services through verified technical capabilities. We look forward to working with our partners in government and local enterprises,” Sakda Katekaew, CEO of Huobi Thailand. In 2018,…
Singtel today announced its first foray into the insurance market, introducing Singapore’s first prepaid data plan and Dash mobile remittance service that comes with personal insurance cover, provided by NTUC Income (Income) and premiums paid for by Singtel. Singtel provides mobile connectivity to more than 60% of foreign workers in Singapore, including S Pass workers (mid-level skilled staff), foreign domestic workers and migrant workers which number about 1.171 million in Singapore. This insurance coverage will complement the mandatory medical insurance that employers need to purchase for foreign workers. “As many of our prepaid and Dash mobile remittance customers are the…
The race is on to digitize banking throughout the Asia-Pacific region, according to an EIU report. It found that competition is intensifying between established retail banks and the technology and e-commerce disruptors that threaten to carve up the payment solutions market. Big tech companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and major payment players such as WeChat Pay, Alipay and PayPal are viewed as the biggest threat to APAC bankers (60%). This is followed by neo-banks/digital-only banks like Volt Bank, Varo Money, Monzo (25%) this is despite the fact Hong Kong has already issued 8 licenses and Singapore is also looking issue 5…
“Crypto summer” is finally here as the industry once again enters the mainstream, according to a new report by CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency market data aggregator. According to the 2019 Quarter 2 Cryptocurrency Report, the quarter witnessed an astonishing 125% increase in crypto market capitalization. Bitcoin led the market with a rise of 165% in value from US$4,103 to $10,888, and dominance growing from 54.6% to 65%. Ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash also saw strong growth with over 100% returns. The market revival comes after a long and painful 18 months of market decline in which bitcoin slumped by almost three-quarters.…
The Fintech News Network have been on the forefront of delivering the latest stories and insights since 2014, our Founder and CEO Christian recently sat down for an interview with Telum Media, one of the leading PR & journalist platform in the region. Below is an excerpt of the conversation: What was the inspiration behind the establishment of Fintech News Network I’m not sure if many are aware of this, but I began my journey into publishing way back in 2012 with blogging about financial products in Switzerland. The website was all about investment products and personal finance, so I…
Following their US$ 25 Million fund raising round, CXA announced that they are setting up a Tech Hub in Ho Chin Minh, Vietnam. CXA describes itself an AI driven platform for better health, wealth and wellness choices. The new launched tech hub, will focus on helping the startup enhance its core capabilities in the areas of AI, machine learning and accelerating its product, development and micro service capabilities. “We are in a unique position as the only solution which provides a tech platform delivering a seamless end-to-end experience from insurance, health, banking & wellness. We have received overwhelming response from…
UnionBank of the Philippines recently became the first Philippine bank to successfully pilot blockchain-based remittance from Singapore to the Philippines. This was done in partnership with OCBC Bank, Singapore, using the Adhara liquidity management and international payments platform. Amid a continued push for financial inclusion for all Filipinos as aligned with the Philippine government’s mandate, UnionBank on June 27 used blockchain-based tokenized fiat to successfully remit from OCBC Bank in Singapore to an account holder at Cantilan Bank, a rural bank in Surigao Del Sur. This was made possible by combining the features of both the Adhara platform and UnionBank-UBX’s…
Singapore-based startup Travelstop is reimagining business travel and expense management in Asia. In its efforts to modernise the industry, the firm has raised US$3 million in Pre-Series A funding led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Accel, with participation from Strive (formerly GREE Ventures), and existing investor SeedPlus. As part of this new round, Accel’s Prashanth Prakash will be joining the company’s Board of Directors. This latest round of funding comes just 10 months after the company launched its business travel and expense management product in August last year. At the time, Travelstop had announced a Seed funding round of US$1.2 million…
SoCash, a Singapore based fintech announced today that it has raised US$ 6 Million in its Series B funding round led by Japan based cashed automation player Glory Ltd and participated by Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures alongside Vertex Ventures. SoCash’s services enables consumers to withdraw cash and apply for loans via its mobile app at their participating partner shops. With this fresh round of funding, SoCash is eyeing to expand its services to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. According to their press release, soCash has already received regulatory clearances to operate in these 3 new markets. Their statement seem to…
Philippines’ 7-Eleven is eyeing to deploy 300 ATMs in Metro Manila by next year. In doing so they will be teaming up with Japan’s Seven Bank, who is currently operating a network of 18,000 ATMs across 7-Eleven’s in Japan through a series of partnership with the local banks there. According to their announcement Philippines is the first country that Seven Bank’s services is made available outside of Japan, it is reported that they are currently in talks a number of banks in Philippines. The pilot will start with the initial 300 ATMs and then both parties will evaluate the feasibility…
Across the globe, access to financial markets diverges dramatically from one country to another. While in the US about 52% of people are investing in the stock market, in emerging countries like India and Mexico, the figure drops significantly with only 2% of Indians investing in stock markets and 2.6% of Mexicans being retail investors. Thankfully, blockchain technology and open source protocols like Bitcoin and Ethereum have birthed the new concept of decentralized finance (DeFi), a trend promising to bring financial services to those who have so far been excluded. DeFi represents a broad category of financial applications being developed…
Competition is heating up in Singapore’s digital banking landscape as an increasing number of fintechs including e-wallet operators and payment services providers are looking to apply for when applications open in August. Liquid Group, Xfers, MatchMove Pay and FOMO Pay are all considering the license, according to a report by the Business Times, while publicly-listed Razer, which operates Razer Pay, and Singtel, which operates mobile wallet Singtel Dash, said they are currently studying the feasibility of applying for it. Liquid Group, which is part of a consortium of partners exploring digital wholesale banking, the license would allow it to further its…
CredoLab, a developer of bank-grade digital scorecards based on smartphone metadata, announced its expansion into the Sub-Saharan African fintech market with the addition of three new clients – two banks and a leading airtime credit provider. According to its press release the Singapore-based fintech start-up has successfully developed scorecards for over USD 1 billion in loans issued by more than 50 lenders across 15 countries. CredoLab’s alternative credit scoring solution comes at a critical juncture in the region’s focus on financial inclusion. The Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) was recently launched by the African Development Bank to address the…
Visa, has invested in GOJEK, as part of the latter’s ongoing Series F fundraising round. The two companies will work together to provide greater options for cashless payments and more seamless experiences for consumers across Indonesia and Southeast Asia. With GO-PAY’s position as one of Indonesia’s market leader in digital payments and financial inclusion, this round of funding will support the acceleration of GOJEK’s payment services across Southeast Asia. The partnership will see GOJEK and Visa collaborating on payment solutions for digital-first consumers and Southeast Asia’s unbanked and underserved population. Financial inclusion in Southeast Asia continues to be an urgent…
OneConnect announced today, their partnership with Union Bank’s wholly-owned fintech subsidiary UBX to build what they claim to be the country’s first blockchain enabled platform geared towards meeting the banking needs of MSMEs in the Philippines. According to their press release, the blockchain enabled platform will be operational by 2019 and will be made more widely available by 2020. The platform’s supply chain financing will record crucial data on the blockchain to make it tamper-proof and traceable. Aside from supply chain financing, the parties involved stated that the platform also covers a wide range of business finance needs such as…
A partnership between Samsung Pay and Paisabazaar was recently announced which will enable Samsung Pay users to apply for credit and personal loans from Paisabazaar’s platform. Paisabazaar is part of the PolicyBazaar group, a fintech startup focused on the aggregation of financial products and services. The group is among one of the top funded fintech startups in India, which includes familiar names like Temasek. This partnership will also tap into Paisabazaar’s “Chance of Approval” feature with uses predictive analytics to match the most suited lenders to borrows to improve their chance of loan approval. Samsung Pay is widely accepted in…