While cash remains the undisputed king in Cambodia, the growth of digital transactions and mobile payments is providing tremendous opportunities for fintech ventures and solutions to serve the unbanked and transform the country’s financial landscape. High mobile phone usage and connectivity, as well as low banking penetration rate, make the mobile payment market appealing in the developing Southeast Asian country of Cambodia. According to an Open Institute survey, 96% of Cambodians own a mobile phone and there are over 10 million total units used. Cambodia’s 173% mobile connectivity is the highest in Southeast Asia, beating the regional average of 133% and even…
Author: Fintech News Singapore
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The benefits of IoT span three particular categories, namely the Industrial 4.0 Revolution, smart cities and consumer IoT. Excluding Japan, the IoT market in Asia Pacific is expected to grow from US$250 bil to US$583 bil by 2019. Meanwhile global spending on IoT is expected to hit nearly US$1.4 tril by 2021, up from US$8000 bil in 2017, the technology research firm International Data Corp reports. Yet despite the staggering growth trajectory much of Asia’s investments are largely geared towards investments in IOT Innovation centres. Here are 10 helpful tips for the industry to drive IOT adoption Step 1 :…
NEXT Biometrics a fingerprint sensor technology, specialist announced hat it has received initial orders for its “Scallop” fingerprint readers for use in India’s Aadhaar government ID program. At the same time, NEXT announced its intention to create a subsidiary in India and has also made key additions to the sales organization in the country. The orders for fingerprint readers come just two months after NEXT received certification from India’s Standardization Testing and Quality CertificationDirectorate to sell products for use in the Aadhaar program. The fingerprint readers are sold through NEXT’s distribution partner, AqTronics Technologies. As previously stated, NEXT’s product plans call…
In 2017, a grand total of US$38.1B had been poured into the fintech industry according to KPMG Pulse of Fintech report and of their 2017 figures, KPMG noted that both insurtech and blockchain saw record-setting levels of venture capitalist (VC) investment, as well as deal volumes. Global Trends In 6 years, insurtech investments went from $326 million to $2.1 billion. The trajectory saw a huge leap between 2014 and 2015, lost a bit of footing in 2016, and is now back on a gradual incline that will hopefully continue in 2018–especially with so many huge corporations and organisations making strides to speed…
In the past year, the fintech industry in Thailand has witnessed significant growth but the latest push from the government is set to position the country as one of the region’s top fintech hubs. The Thailand government is putting a particular effort on developing its fintech industry as part of the country’s broader Smart Cities and Thailand 4.0 initiative, which aims to integrate digital technology, energy and transport to improve the quality of life. In particular, it is the Bank of Thailand (BOT), the country’s central bank, that has taken a leading role in creating a favorable fintech ecosystem, undertaking…
The Monetary Authority of Singapore, together with five local polytechnics and 12 industry partners came together to hold the inaugural PolyFinTech 100 API Hackathon. The hackathon which started on the 2nd of June drew in close to 130 participants, who in teams of 5-6 each, turned their ideas into proof-of-concept solutions to prove how financial services can be incorporated into users’ daily lives. Some of the solutions include banking applications for the visually impaired, a mobile application for enabling efficient GST refunds for tourists, and e-payment services in hawker centres. And the team that stood above the rest to win…
Prudential Singapore’s second edition of its digital innovation programme, the PRU Fintegrate Partnership (PRU Fintegrate) is this year inviting scale-ups from all over the world to join its innovation fray. The insurance provider is aiming to build synergistic partnerships with scale-ups from 10 targeted areas to build new, end-to-end scaleable digital solutions for the future. Prudential’s selected partners will win the opportunity to showcase their solutions at Prudential’s booth at the upcoming Singapore FinTech Festival 2018 (12-16 November). They will thereafter, in 2019, also begin a fully-paid up pilot programme to further develop their solutions. Areas for disruption Some…
EY announced plans to invest US$1 billion in new technology solutions, client services, innovation and the EY ecosystem over the next two financial years, commencing from July. According to EY, this move is part of their ongoing strategy to provide clients and people with innovative offerings using the latest disruptive technologies. The new US$1b funding is in addition to the existing, significant annual technology investment. The investment will be used to create new technology-based services and solutions in areas such as financial services, cyber, risk management, managed services, software services as well as digital tax and audit services. Mark Weinberger,…
Fintech innovation has experienced major growth in recent years mainly due to addressing the needs of financial institutions in modernizing payment services and improving customer experience in the digital age. The fintech landscape is quickly evolving with new services, business models and providers, but as the industry matures, however, providers will need to deal with attention from regulators, a wave of mergers and consolidations and a slow-down or drop in valuation, and they will need a more pragmatic approach to business development, with a stronger focus on intellectual property (IP) management and exit strategies. In the past years, an increasing…
On August 9, 2018, Singapore will be celebrating its 53rd National Day, which every year commemorates Singapore’s independence from Malaysia with an exuberant parade, an address by the Prime Minister of Singapore, and fireworks celebrations. This is a great occasion to review the incredible fintech journey of Singapore. The state of fintech in Singapore Singapore’s fintech sector has been a great growth story with more than 400 fintech firms in the country and lot more being added every year. In Singapore, the financial sector makes up more than 12% of the economy and employs almost 200,000 workers. The government launched…
One of the key identifying features of cryptocurrency now is its volatility, with coins rising and falling seemingly at the drop of a hat, and a market that shifts and ebbs sometimes hourly. It would, therefore, take a brave person to create a board game based on cryptocurrency. Well, introducing Reddit user ronoxe, and their free-to-download board game Cryptocoinopoly. According to the GitHub page, Cryptocoinopoly is a cryptocurrency trading game. All players start out with an amount of fiat currency, and they use it to drive everyone else to bankruptcy and centralise all the wealth into your own hands. To…
LINE’s consolidated subsidiary Gatebox Inc. has begun to take orders for the latest model of Gatebox, the world’s first “virtual home robot” that allows owners to live together and interact with a virtual character. The Gatebox uses the latest in projection and sensing technologies to create the interactive virtual character. A limited-run model (the GTBX-1) of only 300 units went on sale in 2016 and sold out in just one month, despite costing approximately JPY300,000 (about SGD3,650). When an addition run of 39 units went on sale in 2017, the company received some 1,000 orders. Since then, many people have asked…
Indonesia’s cashless experiments in Jakarta has yielded interesting results. By 2017, many of the industry’s observers were already discussing the possibility of Indonesia transforming into a cashless nation, and this impression has held on until this year. And transportation is seemingly leading the fold towards cashless. In certain areas, using public transport can all be done with e-money. Not to mention, there is a sharp increase in cashless transactions for homegrown Go-Jek and Grab, who are either paving the way for cashless in Indonesia, or simply reaping its benefits. Since both companies offer food delivery as well, the movement towards cashless is…
The insurance industry is undergoing profound changes, driven by new customer expectations, emerging technologies, and sustained downward pressure on margin. Since 2015, insurtech players have boomed globally and while initially perceived as potential threats, these are now quickly emerging as enablers that can help incumbents drive new customer experiences and deliver more value, according to a report by Startupbootcamp and PwC. The Breaking Boundaries report, released in July, analyzes data from over 1,000 startups and draws insights from interviews with entrepreneurs to understand and identify the latest trends in the insurtech industry. It stresses that “the idea of standalone insurtech…
Following our earlier story on the launch of FundedX, a private exchange to trade shares of high growth startups, FundedHere told in a statement to Fintech News Singapore that they do not possess the necessary licensing to carry the activity. On Thursday morning, the company issued a clarification that FundedX triggered a response from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) stating that they are not permitted to label themselves as private exchange, instead describing themselves as a matching platform. The move to label themselves as such, is likely to avoid falling under the existing licensing regimes by the regulators. However,…
Validus, co-founded by former DBS Bank SME head Ajit Raikar is a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform that helps connect Singapore’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to accredited investors and financial institutions. Just recently, they announced that they have facilitated over $100 million in business fundings to date. Validus has also facilitated more than 1,400 disbursements to Singapore’s SMEs, all with approvals within 24 hours. This comes after Validus gained its Capital Markets License (CMS) from the Monetary Authority of Singapore last December. Backed by Temasek Holdings’ Vertex Ventures, Validus is powered by a proprietary platform using robust cloud infrastructure as…
Technology and digital platforms are transforming business models and changing ground rules, virtually revamping the banking and financial services industry. To keep up with the rapidly evolving fintech world, here are ten new release books on fintech, digital finance, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to read this summer: The Wealthtech Book: The Fintech Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and Finance Visionaries May 14, 2018 by Susanne Chishti (Author), Thomas Puschmann (Author) The Wealthtech Book is a comprehensive guide covering the disruption, innovation and opportunity in technology in the investment management sector. It is an invaluable source of information for entrepreneurs, innovators, investors,…
Singapore state investor Temasek is betting big on fintech. Nearly half of the company’s new investments of S$29 billion made during the financial year ended March 31, 2018, went into technology, life sciences, agribusiness, consumer and non-bank financial services. Temasek owned and managed a net portfolio of S$308 billion as of March 31, with S$16 billion divested and S$29 billion invested during the year. By sector, 26% are from financial services, 21% from telecommunications and media, 16% from both consumer and transport, 6% from agribusiness, 3% from energy, 8% from multi-sector funds, and 4% from others (including credit), according to…
IOT Books Must Read: The Internet of Things (IoT), which refers to the networking of physical objects through the use of embedded sensors, actuators, and other devices that can collect or transmit information about the objects, is growing at a very fast pace. By 2019, the global IoT market is projected to be valued at more than 1.7 trillion US dollars, with the number of connected devices worldwide forecast to reach 20.35 billion in the same year. To better understand these emerging technologies and their implications, here are ten must-read books focusing on the IoT. Top 10 IOT Books The…
Jakarta based FinAccel has raised a USD30 million Series B equity investment round led by Square Peg Capital, with participation from new investors MDI Ventures and Atami Capital, and from existing investors Jungle Ventures, Openspace Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, Alpha JWC Ventures and 500 Startups. In just over two years since launch, Kredivo has become the most widely adopted alternative checkout and digital credit payment method across Indonesian e-commerce merchants. No other company is live on nearly all of the top ten merchants, including Tokopedia, Shopee, Bukalapak and Lazada, and more than 200 overall. Kredivo has credit scored nearly two…