Asia

March 21, 2023 @ 8:47 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Mars Growth Capital, a joint venture between MUFG and Liquidity Group, announced their first Nordic deal, with a $5 million funding in Kognity, an edtech company headquartered in Sweden. Kognity offers a digital teaching and learning platform “used by more than 140,000 students in 1,300… Read More

March 20, 2023 @ 10:07 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recently said that Singapore’s banking system “remains sound and resilient amid heightened volatility in global financial markets following the recent closure of banks in the US.” The Singapore Dollar money market and foreign exchange market “continue to function well.”… Read More

March 20, 2023 @ 7:19 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

RockX, a blockchain node network headquartered in Singapore, announces the launch of Bedrock — the world’s first AML and KYC compliant, institutional-grade Ethereum liquid staking platform to have gone live to the public. Bedrock is described as “a non-custodial, on-chain and independent liquid staking solution… Read More

March 19, 2023 @ 2:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) signed recently a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates to enhance cooperation and jointly enable innovation in financial products and services. Under the MoU, the… Read More

March 18, 2023 @ 2:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

HashKey Group and SlowMist are pleased to announce a strategic partnership to collaborate on digital asset ecosystem security, anti-money laundering for digital assets, cutting-edge security technology research, and other technology fields. The goal of the partnership is “to explore and develop comprehensive security standards and… Read More

March 17, 2023 @ 8:59 am By Omar Faridi  |  

PhonePe, one of India’s largest Fintech platforms, announced it has raised an additional $200 million in primary capital from Walmart, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. This new funding reportedly comes as “a part of PhonePe’s ongoing fundraise of up to $1 billion in… Read More

March 16, 2023 @ 3:10 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ibanera‘s shareholders on recently finalized an $18.5 million funding round. The shareholders in Ibanera, a digital banking and payments company with a focus on embedded payments for Web3 platforms closed an $18.5 million investment round “for themselves to enable them to keep supporting Ibanera’s business… Read More

March 15, 2023 @ 10:38 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

livi bank, which claims to be one of Hong Kong’s leading lifestyle and technology-driven virtual banks, recently announced the full launch of livi Business, which is described as its game-changing service designed “to empower SMEs (small and medium enterprises) to pursue their ambitions by meeting… Read More

March 15, 2023 @ 10:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Wemade Co., Ltd, which claims to be one of the largest publicly-listed gaming companies in South Korea with a market capitalization of $1.4 billion, has announced a strategic partnership with Space and Time (SxT), a key player focused on decentralized data warehousing. The partnership will… Read More

March 15, 2023 @ 10:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Merchant commerce omnichannel platform Pine Labs announced the appointment of Navin Chandani as the President of its Issuing Business. Issuing Business of Pine Labs claims that ii is “a market leader in the issuing of prepaid cards, gift cards, rewards, incentives, loyalty programs and several… Read More

March 15, 2023 @ 10:27 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

This is notably the first ‘directly integrated’ open banking API in MENA’s crypto sector. The collaboration will allow Rain customers in Bahrain “to quickly and easily top-up their crypto wallets via bank transfer through the Rain app.” Tarabut Gateway, which claims to be one of… Read More

March 15, 2023 @ 6:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ria Money Transfer, a firm focused on the cross-border money transfer industry and business segment of Euronet (NASDAQ: EEFT), and ACLEDA Bank Plc., Cambodia’s leading retail bank, announced a partnership that “broadens cross-border money transfer services available to and from Cambodia.” This expansion of Ria’s… Read More

March 15, 2023 @ 6:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

As Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) prepares to ramp up their international expansion over the next 8 weeks, they are beginning this journey in Singapore. Their upgraded retail platform, in addition to their new strategic banking partnership with Standard Chartered, aims “to provide you with a seamless, safe,… Read More

March 14, 2023 @ 10:53 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Zad is reportedly the “first-of-its-kind digital investment platform launched in Kuwait by Securities House, “offering end-users access to trade over 4,000 stocks and ETFs in full compliance with Islamic Shariah principles.” As noted in a blog post, Zad is “the brainchild of the fintech Securities… Read More

March 14, 2023 @ 10:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Astra Tech’s PayBy, a Central Bank-UAE licensed Fintech offering a variety of financial technology services, has achieved a significant milestone in the MENA region fintech space by becoming one of the first fintech player “to obtain a Mastercard (NYSE: MA) principal membership license.” This achievement… Read More

March 14, 2023 @ 4:03 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

MVGX Holdings, a Singapore-based FinTech company, providing end-to-end Carbon Software-as-a-Service solutions, announced that it has appointed Meyer “Sandy” Frucher as its Vice Chairman. In his new role, Sandy will be “responsible for guiding the company toward establishing an interconnected global carbon infrastructure network with national… Read More

March 14, 2023 @ 12:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

VMware recently announced VMware Cloud on AWS is now available in Bahrain. The service, which launched on February 28 in the AWS Middle East (Bahrain) region, will help customers in Bahrain “move their workloads across VMware cloud environments with optimized access to AWS services, supporting… Read More

March 13, 2023 @ 10:10 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Homegrown financial services company Singlife has appointed Citi and BlackRock Aladdin to “provide it with a comprehensive technology platform to unify and transform its asset management capabilities across its front, middle and back-office offering.” Citi and BlackRock Aladdin previously “entered into an alliance to leverage… Read More

March 13, 2023 @ 8:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Paymob, the financial services enabler in the MENA region and Pakistan (MENAP) and Shahid, the Arabic streaming platform by MBC GROUP, announced their signing of a new partnership agreement. The partnership “enables Shahid customers in Egypt to pay for their subscriptions via electronic wallets processed… Read More

March 12, 2023 @ 11:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Liquidity Group, an Israel-based fintech and asset manager, is looking to provide $500 million this year “to support startups in the UAE and across the Middle East.” The company reached unicorn status last month, “with fresh investment of $40 million from Japan’s MUFG at a… Read More