Asia

November 22, 2021 @ 9:07 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), which was formed in 1960 as a development bank and is licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (nation’s central bank) for commercial and investment banking, reveals that its financial inclusion app DiskarTech has reached a five-digit organic growth in… Read More

November 22, 2021 @ 8:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

GCC-headquartered early-stage VC company VentureSouq has introduced a $50 million MENA region Fintech Fund I. As mentioned in the announcement, the MENA Fintech Fund I is the first sector-wide Fintech-focused fund to be introduced across the Middle East area and Pakistan. The new Fund is… Read More

November 22, 2021 @ 8:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Singapore-headquartered Pace, a Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) service provider, has acquired $40 million in capital as part of its Series A round. Investors that participated in Pace’s investment round include UOB Venture Management (Singapore), Marubeni Ventures (Japan), Atinum Partners (South Korea), AppWorks (Taiwan), and several family offices… Read More

November 22, 2021 @ 7:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

MCIS Insurance (MCIS Life) has reportedly acquired a 4.99% stake in Merchantrade Asia, which is a Malaysian money services solution provider (for an undisclosed amount). The acquisition is expected to support MCIS Life’s digital transformation efforts while leveraging Merchantrade’s all-digital capabilities, access to a vast… Read More

November 22, 2021 @ 12:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Canaan (NASDAQ:CAN), a provider of supercomputing solutions, has confirmed the successful delivery of more than 2,000 Avalon Miner units in Kazakhstan, “marking the commencement of joint mining operations by Canaan’s overseas-registered operating entity,” according to an update shared with CI. As mentioned in the announcement, more… Read More

November 22, 2021 @ 10:03 am By JD Alois  |  

ADDX (formerly doing business as iSTOX) has tokenized a credit fund by Temasek-owned SeaTown. According to the company the deal reduces the fund’s minimum investment size from US$5 million to US$20,000, enabling fractional access to a private credit fund with more than USD $1 billion… Read More

November 22, 2021 @ 1:00 am By JD Alois  |  

Online investment platform OurCrowd has become the first venture capital firm to be approved by Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) to operate as a find manager in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). OurCrowd said in a statement that it hs incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary, OurCrowd… Read More

November 21, 2021 @ 9:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Southeast Asia-based online financing platform Funding Societies announced earlier this week that it teamed up with MUFG Bank Malaysia, which operates as a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, in order to introduce a Referral Scheme Program exclusively for the banking institution’s corporate customers in… Read More

November 21, 2021 @ 4:24 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The team at Blockstream notes in a report that Bitcoin is on track for its worst weekly drop in over 6 months. Blocktream writes in a blog post that declines this past week looked to be driven by “continued deleveraging and perhaps also exacerbated by… Read More

November 21, 2021 @ 3:27 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-headquartered Nomod, a payments Fintech with a sharp focus on the MENA region, confirmed earlier this week that it has secured $3.4 million via a seed round. Nomod’s latest investment round takes the Fintech firm’s valuation to $50 million. The company has received investments from… Read More

November 21, 2021 @ 2:21 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Cyberspace Administration of China Plans to Introduce Category-based Data Protection System On November 14th, the Cyberspace Administration of China released the “Internet Data Security Administrative Regulations” for public consultation. The regulations call for the establishment of a category and grade-based data protection system which divides… Read More

November 19, 2021 @ 10:09 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Fatberry, a Malaysian Insurtech platform, this week announced its acquisition of MooMoo, an insurance broker for an undisclosed amount. The move, which allows Fatberry to expand into Thailand, was facilitated through ASEAN Fintech Group, Fatberry’s majority investor. MooMoo is a seven-year-old company that began by… Read More

November 19, 2021 @ 9:52 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Cashfree Payments, an Indian payments and API banking solutions company, this week launched Token Vault, a tokenized solution enabling merchants to save card network tokens, while staying compliant with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines. Token Vault also processes payments using tokenized cards as a… Read More

November 19, 2021 @ 5:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Nudge Inc., a “next-gen” credit-card provider and a future challenger bank based in Japan, announced that it has expanded its Pre-Series-A round with additional capital from Insignia Ventures Partners and the Sony Innovation Fund. The firm’s investment round has reportedly been led by Spiral Capital… Read More

November 18, 2021 @ 10:48 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Indonesia-based digital wallet OVO is teaming up with financial marketplace Bareksa and Bahana TCW Investment Management in order to introduce a fixed-income product. The Bahana MES Syariah Fund Kelas O is reportedly being offered only via the OVO app as part of the digital wallet’s… Read More

November 17, 2021 @ 10:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Airwallex has raised an additional $100 million at a $5.5 billion valuation, according to a note from the company. The funding was an “E1” round and part of a wider $300 million Series E raise. Airwallex says the Series E1 round was oversubscribed, on the… Read More

November 17, 2021 @ 8:12 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Pine Labs, a merchant commerce platform serving merchants in India and Southeast Asia, today announced a partnership with Standard Chartered Malaysia. Standard Chartered’s customers in Malaysia can now access interest-free installment options on credit cards at any offline point-of-sale system powered by Pine Labs. The… Read More

November 17, 2021 @ 8:09 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Plenty, a DeFi protocol on the Tezos blockchain, along with Tezos India, is organizing a two-month hackathon designed to produce solutions to several Plenty use cases. The application period for the Plenty Global Hackathon 1.0, can be submitted beginning Nov. 20. Possible use cases include… Read More

November 17, 2021 @ 2:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The VeChain Foundation notes that after many months of hard work and dedicated effort, the arrival of Block #10653500 on the VeChainThor mainnet “officially marks the upgrade to PoA 2.0 phase 1 and the first steps towards the full-form of [their] protocol upgrade.” As they… Read More

November 16, 2021 @ 4:14 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Southeast Asian “super-app” Grab is working to restore service today, the company said. Customers across Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia have reported trouble using the super-app, with some voicing their frustrations on social media. “We experienced a service disruption this morning that impacted a number… Read More