Author: Fintech News Singapore

Blockchain and cryptocurrency is gaining mainstream appeal, nothing demonstrates that more than the fact that several major smartphone manufacturers are designing their phones to be either blockchain powered or blockchain enabled. Here are 4 players attempting to embed blockchain in their smartphones to hopefully appeal to the crypto community. 1.Samsung’s Galaxy S10  Announced on February 20, the new Galaxy S10 smartphone will reportedly include a feature for securely storing cryptocurrency private keys, a news report says. It is said to include a security software and hardware that is said to have “blockchain-enabled mobile services.” Causing a stir among cryptocurrency community…

Silot, an AI platform for intelligent financial decisions, recently completed its Series A Round with US$8 million (SG$10.85 million) with SBI Investment being the lead investor, followed by Sumitomo Corporation, MUFG’s subsidiary Krungsri Finnovate, and the previous investor Arbor Ventures. The funding Silot raised will focus on the R&D of knowledge graph technology (knowledge base used by Google and its services to enhance its search engine’s results), market expansion, and financial products innovation. Silot was established in early March 2017 in Singapore, fueled by the seed funding from a China VC in ZhenFund. In December 2017, Arbor Ventures and Eight Roads…

Despite blockchain being celebrated for ushering in the next generation of the digital revolution, legal and regulatory concerns have hindered the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency and its underlying technology. While some legislators across the globe such as those in China and the US have responded with preemptive bans and crackdowns, other jurisdictions have assumed a more progressive stance towards balancing regulation with consumer and investor safety. Today, countries in Southeast Asia have taken a keen interest in the potential of cryptocurrency, issuing new guidelines, and regulations in an effort to open their doors to the sizable business and technological opportunities…

Bain & Company, a global business and management consultancy, announced that Satish Shankar will take on the role of Regional Managing Partner for Asia Pacific (APAC), effective April 1st. A veteran in the firm for over 20 years, Satish will continue to be based in Singapore. Satish will be taking over the role from Dale Cottrell, who has served as the Regional Managing Partner for six years. In his new role, Satish will lead Bain’s business across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region; and oversee the overall company’s strategy, operations, training and development. He will also focus on working with the management teams of…

SWIFT announced that they will be working with Singapore Exchange (SGX) along with Deutsche Bank, DBS, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank to work on a proof-of-concept on e-voting using blockchain. The trial will explore whether blockchain can help simplify the currently inefficient management of shareholder meetings and the associated voting processes that are often time-consuming and resource intensive. Proxy voting in particular often results in avoidable complexity and errors that could be eliminated through greater transparency and automation. SWIFT will facilitate the proof-of-concept in its blockchain sandbox testing environment with Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank joining as participants,…

Fresh out of Coinbase’s funding round of $300 million Series E round the hashtag #deletecoinbase seems to be trending in the twitterverse. This round of fund-raising included Singapore’s very own wealth fund, GIC. The reason by the call from users to ditch the cryptocurrency exchange seems to be rooted from their controversial acquisition of Neutrino. Users were reasonably up in arms when they discovered that the founders Neutrino was reported to be selling spyware to authoritarian regimes repeatedly during their time with a company called Hacking Team. Currently, the firm is involved with analysis and tracking of multiple blockchain including the…

If properly regulated, technology-enabled financial services such as mobile payments, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, alternative credit scoring, and new forms of savings and insurance, can accelerate the rise in financial inclusion for the 1.7 billion people worldwide who do not have a bank account. This is according to a new report commissioned by Her Majesty Queen Màxima of the Netherlands, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA). The report, titled Early Lessons on Regulatory Innovations to Enable Inclusive Fintech: Innovation Offices, Regulatory Sandboxes, and Regtech, was produced by the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Alternative Finance…

With the signing of a memorandum of understanding, UOB will enable small businesses that use OctoRocket for at least six months to apply for financing directly on the platform itself. Instead of relying on a small business’ financial statements, the UOB will assess the applicant’s creditworthiness based on its transactional data on OctoRocket, using a credit assessment engine developed by Avatec.ai. Using AI and machine learning, the engine gains insights into the applicant’s cashflow and day-to-day operations, which enables it to determine the applicant’s credit quality. UOB asserts that this allows the bank to bring the loan approval period from the…

It’s no secret that the Americans often use sanctions and embargoes as a political tool, faced with economic disadvantages many of these countries are increasingly turning into cryptocurrencies as a way to circumvent sanctions. These countries often include authoritarian regimes like North Korea, Venezuela and Russia. Some sanctions imposed by the U.S. are considered almost absolute. Iran’s economy, for example, is often considered as one of those who are most threatened by these sanctions. It saw “unprecedented” economic pressure from Trump’s administration, in July 2018. For the past one year, the Iranian Rial had plunged to new lows as U.S. sanctions loom.…

Line Corp., the Japanese mobile applications and Internet firm operating Japan’s most popular messaging app Line, has invested US$182 million into its digital payments unit Line Pay Corp, according to a filing. The move follows a challenging year 2018, which saw Line post a JPY 5.79 billion loss despite revenues growing 24% to JPY 207.18 billion, according to the company’s latest financial report. Line has built an ecosystem around its messaging platform, which expanded to include gaming, e-commerce, manga and job services. The Line chap app has an estimated 50 million registered users. The firm is now betting on payments…

Rely just announced a seven-figure Pre-Series A funding led by Goldbell Financial Services. Additional funding comes from Octava, a family office based in Singapore among other strategic investors.The exact figure was not disclosed. Rely is a local fintech company that provides shoppers with an interest-free option for payment installments during online shopping. The home grown will use the fresh funding for regional expansion, scale up their team, and to support more partnerships across the region. The payments platform has established partnerships with e-commerce retailers such as Zalora, Zilingo and Fitlion. CEO and Founder, Hizam Ismail, said:  “With the rapid expansion of…

Validus a P2P lending platform announced today that it has successfully raised $US 14 Million in an oversubsribed series B funding round. Investment in Validus’ Series B round was led by FMO, Netherlands’ public-private development bank. FMO has over 300 investments in banking and financial services institutions (BFSIs). Its investment in Validus marked FMO’s first fintech investment in Southeast Asia Participating investors also include Taiwan’s Cathay Financial Holdings, Singapore’s Openspace Ventures (previously NSI Ventures), Temasek investment arm Vertex Ventures, Thailand’s AddVentures by SCG and Vietnam’s VinaCapital Ventures. Founded in 2015 in Singapore, Validus brings together accredited individual and institutional lenders and…

After successfully raising a US$ 10 Million series A led by Vertex Ventures, Thailand-based insurtech startup Sunday is eyeing expansion into Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. This new funding round puts Sunday among the top-funded fintech startups in Thailand Sunday is a digital insurer who claims to differentiate itself based on “risk-prediction model driven by AI and machine learning” the startup also claims to use more variables than any insurer in South East Asia. “At Sunday, we believe the only way to solve this is to own and simplify the entire value chain using data and technology. We want to create a…

Against the backdrop of a looming Brexit on March 29th and the need for Revolut to ramp its hiring activities, its founder Nik Storonsky has voiced its concerns over the British government’s lack of progress on the fast tracking of visas for top tech talent. Much like the rest of the tech sector in UK, fintech is also greatly reliant on foreign talent. Nik Stroronsky commented that, “It’s a no-brainer that bureaucratic processes, red tape and numerous delays will see tech talent choose to go elsewhere, especially with growing competition from tech hubs across Europe. The UK government has…

Ping An, the world’s largest insurer by value,  has announced the launch of it’s fintech arm OneConnect in Indonesia. The fintech arm will be offering a suite of services ranging from Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Biometrics and other tech that were previously deployed within the Ping An Group. The groups call to fame is its Biometric Authentication which boasts an accuracy of 99.8% which is widely regarded as among the best in the world. OneConnect is also known for its blockchain solution, it is the technology provider for Hong Kong Monetary Authority trade finance blockchain project Hong Kong eTrade Connect To…

Thailand has certainly evolved into an interesting landscape for fintech as of late, thanks to a big push by the government in developing its fintech industry as part of the country’s broader Smart Cities and Thailand 4.0 initiative. The goal is to turn Thailand into a fintech hub in its own right. Thailand is particularly susceptible to fintech thanks to a gap in connectivity between urban and rural areas, where fintechs can jump in to disrupt existing processes and bring much-needed financial services to many citizens. Throughout the relatively scant years of fintech as an ecosystem in Thailand, quite a few…

Experian, a consumer financial data service provider is currently expanding its Experian X Labs, an innovation lab looking into becoming an Asia Pacific incubator and collaboration center. The goal is partly to address the gaps in financial inclusion well-known amongst Asia Pacific nations. One of the solutions currently in development is the Experian X Score, a credit-scoring system based on alternative data. The solution targets more than 200 million consumers across Asia Pacific that could strengthen their financial identities and progressively grant access to a wider set of financial services. A solution like this could cut through the Catch-22 experienced by…

Depending on whether you count Grab (and that can be a contentious argument), Singapore has yet to produce a homegrown unicorn operating in fintech: but all signs point to one emerging in the future. Singapore only has Hong Kong as its big competitor for the title of the Asian fintech hub, with a maturing fintech ecosystem, entry of various international players to partner with or draw inspiration from, a mass market that is at least somewhat educated on various fintech offerings, and proximity to many Southeast Asian markets in sore need of fintech revolutions. In this article, we put together…

Indonesia’s fintech is probably one of the fastest growing tech sectors recently, thanks to  the proliferation of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. According to the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK), transactions through P2P lending totaled US$951 million (Rp 13.8 trillion) in the first three quarters of 2018, despite regulator crackdowns to curb predatory lendors. The trend has brought a sense of tangibility and impact on fintech in Indonesia, which is bolstered by the rise in venture capitalist presence, as well as increasing bank interest in bolstering tech: a natural boon for fintech startups to take advantage of. All of this is in service…

Popular personal finance website DollarsAndSense announced the acquisition of local financial planning startup fundMyLife. With the acquisition of fundMyLife, DollarsAndSense will add to its growing media business a financial planning platform for consumers. The move will also give the company better insights into what consumers are looking for, as well as identify gaps in Singaporeans’ financial planning knowledge. Since 2017, DollarsAndSense has been working closely with fundMyLife on multiple areas, including affiliate partnerships, content marketing and improving engagement with the financial adviser community. During the transition, fundMyLife co-founders Jackie Tan and Wesley Goi will remain on board to ensure continuity…