Asia

February 17, 2022 @ 1:17 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is now an investor in a new virtual bank being launched in the Middle Eastern nation with a capital of SAR 1.65 billion (appr. $440 million). The Saudi cabinet has reportedly approved a license for D360 bank (on Tuesday), the… Read More

February 16, 2022 @ 11:36 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Akulaku, an Indonesian buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm, announced this week it has received $100 million from the Siam Commercial Bank in Series E financing. The news comes months after the firm announced a $125 raise which was co-led by Silverhorn Group, who has… Read More

February 16, 2022 @ 9:39 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore(MAS) has laid the hammer down on DBS Bank after its digital banking services were widely unavailable for three days toward the end of last November. In a public statement, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said it has imposed an additional… Read More

February 16, 2022 @ 7:50 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Qudian Inc. (NYSE: QD), a technology platform supporting the enhancement of the online consumer finance experience in China, recently announced that it has received a letter from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) dated February 7, 2022, informing the company that it is “below the… Read More

February 16, 2022 @ 11:30 am By JD Alois  |  

Funding Societies, an online capital formation platform serving Asia, has announced $294 million in funding led by SoftBank. According to a statement by the company, USD $144 million was raised in an oversubscribed Series C+ equity round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with new… Read More

February 16, 2022 @ 2:38 am By Omar Faridi  |  

KreditBee, one of India’s leading virtual lending platforms, has announced that it crossed the milestone of issuing 1 million ‘KreditBee Card’. The firm now claims that it is one of the fastest cards to cross this milestone, since its launch in August 2021. KreditBee has… Read More

February 16, 2022 @ 1:25 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

RapiPay, an Indian Fintech, this week announced it has raised $15 million in funding to launch NYE, a new-age digital banking super app. The current funding round is led by Varun Jaipuria (RJ Corp), DLF Family Office, Rahul Gautam (Sheela Foam) and Rohan Kumar (DS… Read More

February 15, 2022 @ 11:15 pm By JD Alois  |  

In 2021 the Korean government cracked down on digital asset exchanges requiring the crypto trading platforms to receive regulatory approval to operate. While some were approved before a strict deadline the bulk struggled to meet the requirements. One of these was GOPAX. Today, according to… Read More

February 15, 2022 @ 11:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) recently announced that they’re strictly prohibiting the nation’s financial services providers from marketing or facilitating the trading of cryptocurrencies. The Indonesian regulator has cautioned that the value of virtual currencies are subject to market fluctuations and investors need to be… Read More

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