Advantedj, a P2P online platform for investment insights specifically for PMETs launched this week. Unlike B2B startups, B2C robo-advisors, banks, online forums, and personal financial advisors, Advantedj levels the playing field with financial influencers for the disadvantaged amateur investors. Through the platform, Advantedj encourages savvy individuals to become financial influencers (contributors) by sharing their investment ideas or themes they understand. At the time of launch, there are more than 40 model portfolios or “Edjes”. Advantedj tracks the performance of all the Edjes, ranks and publishes them daily. “Unlike other advisory or trading platforms, we focus only on performance, actual verified…

Out of 600 million people in ASEAN, around 73% are unbanked. Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is taking over the Financial Service industry. Singapore has been supporting this initiative for some time now through high investments in order to promote building a new digital economy. TransferFriend’s expansive 1,500 research on foreign workers found that much of their monthly income sent from Asia is often ill-used on short-term consumables with no specific savings plan in place. Majority of the respondents work to send up to 50% of their income back home to support their families without having a financial goal in mind. Having…

Adyen announced an expansion of its current payment processing offerings in Singapore via a direct credit card acquiring license for Visa and MasterCard. This extends Adyen’s full stack solution to Singapore, enabling businesses to process transactions and increase opportunities for improved revenue and richer data insights. Merchants also benefit from Adyen’s on-the-ground expertise, including optimization of local market conditions, ensuring merchants increase opportunities for conversions. “Adyen was founded on a vision that optimizing the payment cycle would lead to greater benefits for merchants and end customers. Our direct credit card acquiring capability makes it possible for our customers to benefit from…

On the eve of the third anniversary of the launch of Apple Pay, mobile wallet adoption is on the rise globally and consumers in the U.S. and Europe are catching up with those in fast-growing economies in Asia and Latin America where mobile wallets have already become the dominant payment platform, according to benchmark data from the Global Consumer Survey:Consumer Trust and Security Perceptions published by ACI Worldwide and Aite. The research shows that 17 percent of U.S. consumers now regularly use their smartphone to pay, up from 6 percent in 2014 when the survey was last conducted. In Europe, Spanish…

The Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), a national private-led organization with the mission to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in Singapore, today announced the official launch of the ACE International Centre (“ACEIC” or the “Centre”). As part of the Government’s efforts to boost Singapore’s startup scene under the Startup SG brand, the ACEIC is a dedicated one-stop centre to support startups in international growth and expansion. The centre will facilitate opportunities for both local startups seeking regional growth and international startups setting up their bases in Singapore, strengthening our position as a leading startup hub and a launchpad for the region.…

Citi Singapore today announced the launch of Citi Bot – the bank’s new natural language chatbot on Facebook Messenger. Singapore is the first market for the launch of the chatbot which will be introduced progressively in the Asia Pacific region over the next few months. This landmark initiative furthers Citi’s open architecture approach to digital banking as the bank taps on its global network to form strategic partnerships and to co-create with leading players in digital ecosystems globally and locally. Han Kwee Juan, Chief Executive Officer of Citibank Singapore, said, “To be the best bank for our customers, we need…

The FinLab is set to see more success following the graduation of eight promising financial technology (FinTech) startups from its 100-day accelerator programme this month. The FinLab, an innovation accelerator joint venture between United Overseas Bank (UOB) and SGInnovate, provides practical guidance, resources and mentorship to enable startups selected into its programme to secure investor funding, to sign commercial deals and to expand into new markets. The graduates from The FinLab’s second cycle have developed a range of innovative FinTech solutions using technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning. These solutions will be used to drive innovation in…

As part of Prudential’s customer-centric approach, the life insurer has launched an industry-first chatbot that can provide its Financial Consultants with real-time information specific to their customers’ life insurance plans. Named askPRU, the cognitive-powered chatbot is built on IBM Watson technology and integrated into Prudential’s backend systems. It is able to retrieve instantly data such as a customer’s policy cash value, policy premium due date and status of submitted claims, among others. As askPRU operates round the clock, Prudential’s Financial Consultants can communicate with the chatbot via a mobile application at any time of the day to obtain information pertaining to their…

Bambu, a B2B robo-advisor platform provider, announces it has completed a funding round led by three new investors. Franklin Templeton Investments, a global leader in asset management, becomes the first strategic investor in Bambu. Wavemaker Partners, one of Singapore’s leading venture capitalists and part of the Draper Venture Network, brings the first venture capital funding for Bambu. They are joined in the round by renowned FinTech investor Robby Hilkowitz, an early advocate of, and investor in robo-advisors globally. Ned Phillips, Founder and CEO of Bambu, said; “We are delighted to have both strategic and venture capitalist investors in our latest…

Singapore-based startup PolicyPal today announced its graduation from the MAS FinTech Regulatory Sandbox and will commence operations as a registered direct insurance broker and exempt financial adviser under its subsidiary BaoXianBaoBao Pte Ltd from 1st September 2017. PolicyPal is the first start-up to graduate from the MAS FinTech Regulatory Sandbox, having entered the six-month sandbox in March 2017. PolicyPal is Asia’s first independent app that utilizes artificial intelligence to simplify and digitize insurance, allowing both customers and organisations to streamline the management of their insurance policies. PolicyPal empowers individuals to further understand their assets and liabilities, get adequate insurance coverage…

SAS and KPMG in Singapore released two new Managed Analytics Service Providers (MASP) solutions – the first cloud-based, cost-effective and secure solutions in market to help financial institutions in Asia meet the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) new IFRS9 reporting standards which take effect from 2018, as well as with enterprise stress testing. Built on Microsoft Azure, KPMG expects the cloud-based IFRS9 and Enterprise Stress Testing risk analytics solutions to benefit banks with significant cost savings and business agility as compared to an on-premise software solution. The MASP model will allow financial institutions to access KPMG’s expertise in financial risk…

Singapore based blockchain solutions provider Bluzelle has announced that it has raised a US$ 1.5 million Series A round. Aiming to be the database of the sharing economy and next iteration of the internet, Bluzelle is developing a decentralized, on-demand, scalable database service that is low-cost, quick to deploy, and easily scalable. Bluzelle was recently appointed by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer for 2017 and was named to the Global FinTech 100. Realizing the potential for the blockchain to provide superior solutions as compared to existing legacy systems which are expensive to maintain, Bluzelle was founded in…

PopScoot, a Singapore-based company, will be the first to bring smart urban mobility to key downtown commercial, hospitality and retail clusters as well as the heartlands in September, via a new electric scooter co-sharing platform. Meanwhile, a soft launch near the end of August will see pilot docks deployed at ManuLife Centre, Republic Plaza, Tiong Bahru Plaza and City Square Mall. With PopScoot, urbanites, tourists and delivery riders will enjoy easy, anytime access to last mile transit “without breaking a sweat”. The first platform to use a Bluetooth app-based unlocking system, PopScoot releases e-scooters from their docks instantaneously when activated…

Azimo, a digital disrupter of traditional money transfer services, extends its cash pick-up service enabling customers in the Philippines to collect money minutes after money transfer is made. In a revolutionary step for the Philippines market, Azimo’s direct service ensures that money sent from any of its 22 send-countries across Europe, will get to recipients typically within just 1 hour and can be collected on any day that is convenient for them-even over a weekend- making it the safest and most convenient way to send and receive money.  This new lighting-fast service comes as Azimo overhaul and optimise their service…

Grab announced the launch of its new expanded GrabRewards programme. By drawing more than 150 merchants into its ecosystem of rewards partners, Grab confirms its customer base’s appeal to merchants as one of the most popular apps in SEA. With 55 million mobile downloads, it opens up a new way for Grab merchant partners to market through the largest customer loyalty programme across Southeast Asia. “This is an important step in the development of the GrabPay wallet,” says Jason Thompson, Head of GrabPay. “With our new expanded GrabRewards programme, we’ve created an ecosystem in which our customers stay loyal because a…

DBS and Xero, a global cloud accounting platform, have launched an API-driven bank feed integration that will transform how mutual customers in Singapore manage their finances. This landmark collaboration allows small businesses to instantly connect their DBS business banking accounts to Xero so that their transaction data can flow securely and automatically into Xero each day. The business owner will get a reliable, up-to-date view of their financial position in Xero, empowering them to make more informed business and investment decisions, without the hassle and costly mistakes caused by outdated cash flow balances and human error. The online integration…

Visa announced expanded transaction processing capabilities in two state-of- the-art data centres in Singapore and the United Kingdom. The new global processing hubs will increase the speed, resilience and geo-diversity of Visa’s infrastructure, while strengthening the company’s ability to deliver new and more sophisticated ways to pay in today’s hyper-connected global economy. “Commerce and payments are in the midst of an historic shift from analog to digital. A growing majority of people around the globe are leaving cash behind and reaching instead for their cards and devices to pay,” said Rajat Taneja, Executive Vice President of technology at Visa. “With…

The Singapore-based leader in blockchain protocol for digital insurance, Aigang Network, this week launched its unique Android and iOS demo app. Running on Ethereum testnet, the first-of-its-kind demo for Aigang Network’s peer-to-peer (P2P) digital insurance blockchain protocol for Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. The announcement marks the beginning of a fully Autonomous Organization (DAO) marketplace for consumer insurance, made possible through Ethereum smart contracts. The demo app has been specifically developed to work as a smartphone battery insurance highlighting Aigang Protocol, launching on both Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The Aigang app is planned to operate in P2P capacity and…

CB Insights named Funding Societies to the prestigious Fintech 250, a select group of emerging private companies working on groundbreaking financial technology. CB Insights CEO and co-founder, Anand Sanwal, revealed the Fintech 250 companies during The Future of Fintech, a gathering of the world’s largest financial institutions, best fintech startups, and most active venture investors. “The financial services industry will see more change in the next 10 years than it has in the last 100. And that transformation is being driven by a group of smart insurgent startup companies. The Fintech 250 are the most promising of these insurgents. They…

Asia’s burgeoning smart home market will reach US$115 billion by 2030, accounting for 30 percent of the global share, according to a report released by global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. The report forecasts the global smart home market to grow to US$50 billion by 2020 and surge to US$400 billion by 2030, from US$15 billion currently. Grow in Asia will be driven by China and Japan, with highly-connected economies such as Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan also playing a key role “Asia’s socio-economic landscape provides a great opportunity for the region to be a global driver of growth in…