Asia

February 15, 2022 @ 12:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

CoinDCX, India’s first crypto unicorn which claims to be the country’s “safest” crypto exchange, announced that it has chosen crypto-native risk monitoring company Solidus Labs as a strategic compliance partner. With the goal to protect its clients from known forms of market abuse and a… Read More

February 15, 2022 @ 12:16 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Indian Fintech Unicorn Slice has finalized its first employee stock option plan (ESOP) buyback valued at $8.6M. In November of last year, Slice achieved Unicorn status (valued at $1 billion or more) after securing $220 million via its Series B that was co-led by Tiger… Read More

February 15, 2022 @ 12:32 am By Omar Faridi  |  

New digital tools are offering powerful methods for businesses to enhance brand identities, service offerings and allow for considerable efficiency gains across many aspects of their operations. Canada’s IT consulting firm Micromation saw an opportunity and joined forces with the layer-one smart contract platform, VeChainThor,… Read More

February 14, 2022 @ 11:39 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

i2c Inc., a provider of digital payment and banking tech, announced its partnership with KARTY, a Qatar-based Fintech offering tailored digital financial solutions to the MEA region, in order to introduce a digital-first prepaid mobile wallet to the country. Leveraging i2c’s international payments platform, Karty’s… Read More

February 14, 2022 @ 10:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Digital commerce is a major engine of the global economy. It experienced an economic upshift during the year 2020 as a consequence of the economic slowdown that accompanied the COVID-19 crisis. At the same time, the continued digitization of commercial and consumer transactions “contributed to… Read More

February 14, 2022 @ 11:07 am By JD Alois  |  

KARM Legal Consultant PVT Limited, a UAE legal consultancy firm specialized in blockchain, Fintech and Data Protection/Cyber laws, has announced a partnership with Switzerland-based ScaleCompliance GmbH to provide crypto compliance services. Kokila Alagh, founder and CEO KARM Legal, commented: “We believe in cultivating a divergent… Read More

February 11, 2022 @ 7:01 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Infina, a retail investing app focused on Vietnam, this week announced they have closed a $6 million seed funding round from investors such as Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Y Combinator, Saison Capital, Starling Ventures, Alpha JWC, and AppWorks. Additional investors who have backed Robinhood, Coinbase,… Read More

February 10, 2022 @ 10:08 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Rino, the newly-launched startup founded by Trung Thanh Nguyen, has finalized a $3M pre-seed round in order to accelerate the firm’s blueprint for 10-minute instant delivery by “setting up dark stores and building its own logistics units beginning with Ho Chi Minh City.” Trung Thanh… Read More

February 10, 2022 @ 8:23 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Home-grown startup PDAX (in the Philippines) has announced that it acquired over $50 million in funding, led by Tiger Global. Tiger’s investment completes the firm’s Series B round of funding, which began with $12.5 million back in August of last year. Alex Cook, Partner, Tiger… Read More

February 9, 2022 @ 10:51 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Philippines neobank Tonik announced this week it has raised $17 million in Pre-Series B funding. The news follows less than one year after Tonik’s March 2021 public launch that saw it secure more than $20 million in retail deposits in under one month – a… Read More

February 9, 2022 @ 8:42 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

Indian payments unicorn Razorpay has acquired a majority stake in Curlec, a Malaysian recurring payments solutions provider. The cost was just under $20 million. Curlec is the first international acquisition for Razorpay, and taken together with the previous ones it shows a very deliberate growth… Read More

February 8, 2022 @ 9:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

We recently connected with Seira Yun, the Founder & CEO at Socious, a Fintech/Community App for social change. Seira Yun, a Japanese serial social entrepreneur, full-stack developer, and impact angel investor told Crowdfund Insider that he’s interested in getting more involved in the decentralized/distributed autonomous… Read More

February 6, 2022 @ 5:41 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Sber has reportedly marketed money transfers to Alipay wallets in mainland China by using phone numbers. In order to make a remittance payment, users simply need to indicate the phone number and full name of the intended recipient via SberBank Online, and the funds will… Read More

February 6, 2022 @ 4:57 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recently noted that banks in the Southeast Asian country have “substantially” implemented the additional measures to enhance the security of virtual banking announced on 19 January 2022. The measures, taken together, offer a “significant” added layer of security to… Read More

February 5, 2022 @ 9:06 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Bank of Baroda, one of India’s largest banking institutions, had been looking to boost efficiencies, implement the latest digital technology and provide a more connected customer experience. With these objectives in mind, it chose NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), an international enterprise tech provider, and its… Read More

February 5, 2022 @ 12:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Liquid Group and all of its operating subsidiaries including Quoine Corporation (Cryptocurrency Exchange Business Kanto Finance Bureau Director No. 00002) and Quoine Pte. in Singapore are reportedly being acquired by FTX Trading Ltd. The acquisition is “expected to close in March 2022, subject to customary… Read More

February 4, 2022 @ 12:47 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

India is to tax and regulate Bitcoin and crypto after previously considering a ban, which could be the next step towards making it legal tender in the country, suspects deVere Group CEO Nigel Green. Green’s assessment comes as Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a… Read More

February 3, 2022 @ 9:39 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

MRHB DeFi, which claims to be the first decentralized finance ecosystem platform focused on ethical, sustainable and halal cryptocurrency-related opportunities, has secured $5.5 million via a series of private and public rounds which culminated in an initial DEX offering (IDO) that was “oversubscribed” on the… Read More

February 2, 2022 @ 10:25 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

The Central Bank of Kuwait this week released guidelines for digital banks. They said this falls within its overall efforts to utilize the latest advancements to bolster financial stability, encourage innovation, and meet future economic needs. Governor Dr. Mohammad Y. Al-Hashel said guaranteeing the smooth operation… Read More

February 2, 2022 @ 1:17 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

Southeast Asian open finance platform Ayoconnect has closed a $15 million Series B financing round led by Tiger Global. The round was joined by PayU, the payments and Fintech business of Prosus, and Alto Partners, as well as individual strategic investors, including Plaid co-founder William… Read More