Asia

September 6, 2022 @ 11:39 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Calastone, which claims to be one of the largest global funds networks, announced the opening of their regional headquarters in Singapore, “underpinning their aggressive growth strategy to expand product offerings and footprint across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.” Calastone claims it has been “disrupting the investment… Read More

September 6, 2022 @ 10:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Versa Asia, a Malaysia-based digital cash management platform, recently revealed that they have finalized an “8-figure” investment round. Details of the funding have not been shared publicly. This latest investment round has reportedly been led by Hibiscus Fund, a VC fund that is being managed… Read More

September 6, 2022 @ 10:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Emirates Development Bank (EDB), the financial “engine” of the UAE’s economic diversification and industrial transformation agenda, has announced a lending feature that allows SMEs and startups “to apply for loans of up to AED5 million directly through its Digital Banking App and receive approval or… Read More

September 6, 2022 @ 9:57 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Maybank has designed its own Sustainable Product Framework (SPF) – the “first” by a Malaysian bank – “to enable greater development of green, social and sustainable products.” The framework, which will support the Group’s commitment of ‘Mobilizing RM50 billion in Sustainable Finance by 2025’, will… Read More

September 6, 2022 @ 9:24 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Indonesia’s “first” public-listed technology company, Bukalapak, and Standard Chartered officially launched BukaTabungan, a digital banking service that “leverages the reach of Bukalapak’s all-commerce platform and the technology of nexus, a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) solution powered by Standard Chartered.” This follows from an earlier announcement on their… Read More

September 6, 2022 @ 7:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has reportedly issued the nation’s first virtual payment licenses to Ooredoo Money and iPay by Vodafone Qatar. The announcement was made via social media on August 30, 2022. The update noted that the issuance was made to contribute to the development… Read More

September 5, 2022 @ 10:59 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

GXS Bank, the virtual bank joint initiative of ride-hailing company Grab Holdings and Singapore Telecommunications, have reportedly introduced a digital bank in Singapore. Nasdaq-listed Grab’s financial services have become a vital part of its business expansion strategy as it aims to provide banking, virtual payments,… Read More

September 5, 2022 @ 9:07 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The virtual banking sector in Singapore has grown significantly in the past few years. Recently, the launch of Trust Bank was announced via a partnership between Standard Chartered and retailer FairPrice. The Southeast Asian challenger bank platform provides the typical retail banking service, along with… Read More

September 5, 2022 @ 5:03 pm By JD Alois  |  

Robocash Group says that online lending, savings deposits and mobile payments and transfers, are the most promising sectors of Fintech in the Philippines. Robocash is based in Europe but in recent years has expanded in Asia. Robocash Group operates in the Philippines through the online… Read More

September 5, 2022 @ 4:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Real-time fund transfer service provider InstaPay (in the Philippines) has reportedly processed around 300 million transfers with an aggregate value of about PHP 5.49 trillion during the first seven months of 2022. The average daily volume was reported to be around 1.37 million transactions. InstaPay… Read More

September 5, 2022 @ 12:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Southeast Asia’s wealth management company StashAway has teamed up with the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) in order to provide a suite of diversified multi-asset model portfolios. Developed from BlackRock’s analytics and ETFs (exchange-traded-funds), the portfolios will reportedly be managed by StashAway. Via… Read More

September 5, 2022 @ 8:39 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, announced international insurtech bolttech has built a new customer support platform on AWS “to enhance services for more than eight million customers in 30 markets globally.” Singapore-based bolttech “connects insurers, distributors, and customers to make it easier to… Read More

September 4, 2022 @ 10:58 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Mastercard (NYSE: MA) and Ajman Bank have strengthened their commitment to inclusion through a new initiative “designed to expand access to the digital economy.” The Touch Card is “an accessible payment card that will allow blind and partially sighted people to easily facilitate payments and… Read More

September 1, 2022 @ 11:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Thunes, a cross-border payments company, announced a partnership with Alipay+, a suite of cross-border payments and marketing solutions operated by Ant Group. Thanks to this collaboration, Thunes’ customers and merchants in Europe will now be able to accept Asia’s most widely-used mobile wallets: China’s Alipay… Read More

September 1, 2022 @ 9:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

India’s consumer lending fintech, EarlySalary, has closed its series D funding round of $110 million led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and Norwest Venture Partners. Existing investor Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Limited also participated in the investment round. This is EarlySalary’s largest fundraise to… Read More

August 31, 2022 @ 8:42 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Surecomp announced that the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, commonly known as BIDV, has “gone live with its DOKA-NG™ and allNETT™ solutions to fully digitize trade finance processing.” Supported by local partner, CMC Technology and Solution (CMC TS) in Vietnam,… Read More

August 30, 2022 @ 11:19 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Lightnet Group announced that it has secured a $50 million capital commitment from LDA Capital Ltd “to grow its infrastructure, operations, and expand its technological partner’s (Velo Labs Technology) blockchain technology.” Lightnet will “have the option to increase the $50 million to a total… Read More

August 30, 2022 @ 10:44 am By JD Alois  |  

banco (RABC Group) has raised USD $6.7 million in Series A funding. The round was led by SBI Group, alongside investors Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), R3, Savills, KZM & Company, and others. Based in Singapore and founded in 2018, banco has subsidiaries in both… Read More

August 29, 2022 @ 10:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) recently announced granting permit to a new batch of companies; Lean Technologies and Mod5r to “provide Open Banking Solutions; bringing the total number of permitted Fintech companies operating under its Regulatory Sandbox to 38.” This step completes “a series of… Read More

August 29, 2022 @ 8:58 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Zywa, a teen-focused fintech aiming to “re-imagine” banking for Gen Z in the MENA region, has completed a seed funding round of $3 million. Investors who took part in the investment round reportedly “include Goodwater Capital (the largest consumer tech VC globally), Dubai Future District… Read More