Asia

February 1, 2023 @ 10:33 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

livi bank, Hong Kong’s “lifestyle-driven” virtual bank, is continuing its development with the pilot launch of its wealth management service, which “follows closely on livi’s launch of its first offering to Hong Kong’s SME business community.” livi is now able “to distribute funds managed by… Read More

February 1, 2023 @ 9:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Strike, which claims to be the world’s “leading” digital payments platform built on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, announced the expansion of its “Send Globally” product to the Philippines. Send Globally now “enables fast, secure, and low-cost money transfers between the U.S. and the Philippines, revolutionizing traditional… Read More

January 31, 2023 @ 10:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced the licensing of two finance companies that are “specialized in debt-based crowdfunding, namely: Forus and Tameed.” The licenses were “granted to the companies after successful testing of their solutions in SAMA’s Regulatory Sandbox; an experimental environment dedicated to innovative… Read More

January 31, 2023 @ 7:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

BharatX, an emerging white labelled credit enabler for e-commerce merchants, has  announced its partnership with Snitch – an online men’s clothing brand to offer buy now pay later services. Through the “SnitchPay” feature powered by BharatX, customers will be able “to pay for their purchases… Read More

January 31, 2023 @ 10:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

As this year’s week-long Chinese New Year holiday comes to an end, Ant Group would like to share some observations on Chinese consumers’ spring festival spending and trends. These findings “provide a snapshot of recovering consumption in China’s domestic market and outbound tourism market.” Main… Read More

January 30, 2023 @ 11:27 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Wafeq, a modern and easy-to-use accounting platform, has announced the completion of its $3 million seed round. The Dubai-headquartered company’s seed round was “led Raed Ventures by and saw participation from Wamda Capital, both of which are two of the most prominent names in the… Read More

January 30, 2023 @ 10:40 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Eazy Digital, a Thai insurtech startup that provides digital platforms for insurance companies, has raised US$850,000 in an oversubscribed seed funding round. The investment round was “led by Wavemaker Partners, with participation from Seedstars International Ventures, Wing Vasiksiri, and Sasin Bangkok Venture Club.” Eazy Digital… Read More

January 29, 2023 @ 6:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Hong Kong credit and charge card payments market is set “to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9% between 2022–2026 to reach HKD 831.9 billion ($106.7 billion) in 2026, driven by a significant shift in consumer preferences towards non-cash payment methods… Read More

January 28, 2023 @ 8:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Worldline [Euronext: WLN], a key player focused on payments services, announced the launch of its Buland Bharat digital payments suite, which is designed specially “keeping in mind the needs and wants of small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India.” The Buland Bharat digital payments suite… Read More

January 26, 2023 @ 9:26 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Open Ecosystem RegTech provider, Konsentus, establishes its MENA regional base in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia “to provide open data infrastructure and technology services to regulators and financial services providers in the Kingdom and surrounding territories.” The team is “led by Managing Director MENA, Konsentus,… Read More

January 25, 2023 @ 8:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Tabby, one of MENA’s shopping and financial services apps, has raised $58 million from Sequoia Capital India, STV, PayPal Ventures, Mubadala Investment Capital, Arbor Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst in a Series C round which values the company at $660 million. The fundraise will be used… Read More

January 25, 2023 @ 8:22 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Newly launched Filipino digital bank GoTyme Bank has partnered with global cloud banking platform Mambu in order “to deliver an innovative digital banking solution that is aiming to improve access to high quality financial services for Filipinos.” Singapore-based Tyme Group, which has partnered with Gokongwei… Read More

January 25, 2023 @ 7:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Merchant commerce omnichannel company, Pine Labs announced that it has acquired a proprietary enterprise platform from Bengaluru-based Saluto Wellness Private Limited. This acquisition will “boost the capabilities of Pine Labs’ Issuing Business under the Qwikcilver brand, enabling it to strengthen its offerings across employee rewards… Read More

January 25, 2023 @ 6:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

UAE-based Alaan, the spend management platform for Middle Eastern businesses, announced that it has raised $4.5 million pre-Series A funding, “backed by Presight Capital, Y Combinator, and angel investors.” Together with the $2.5 million seed round last year, Alaan has “raised a total of $7… Read More

January 24, 2023 @ 10:20 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Touch ‘n Go Group, via the Touch ‘n Go eWallet, has formed a strategic partnership with Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, in order “to launch the first corporate social responsibility (CSR)-linked Visa prepaid card in Malaysia.” The design of the new Visa card… Read More

January 24, 2023 @ 9:40 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

PhonePe, one of India’s largest Fintech platforms, announced it has raised $350 million in funding from General Atlantic, a global growth equity firm, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. Marquee Global and Indian investors are also participating in the investment round. The investment marks… Read More

January 23, 2023 @ 10:42 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

CIMB Bank Berhad and CIMB Islamic Bank Berhad announced that it has introduced a self-service ‘Lock Clicks ID’ feature which acts as a ‘kill switch’ for both its CIMB Clicks App and CIMB OCTO App “effective 16 January 2023.” The new feature will enable customers… Read More

January 22, 2023 @ 11:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

IndiaBonds announces the appointment of a new CEO to drive strategic growth and innovation and is set to welcome its Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Mr. Vishal Goenka. Prior to joining IndiaBonds, Vishal was “a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank Singapore, Global Markets, for many… Read More

January 22, 2023 @ 10:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Merchant commerce omnichannel platform, Pine Labs announced that it has entered the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market. Pine Labs will partner local banks and financial institutions in the region “to help them serve their merchant partners better.” Banks in the UAE will “benefit from a… Read More

January 22, 2023 @ 10:21 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Maybank and Perodua Sdn Bhd recently signed a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) on providing seamless end to end integrated digital financial services for Perodua via Maybank’s M2e platform as well as offering additional financial support via financing packages worth close to RM400 million to help… Read More