Asia

January 15, 2021 @ 8:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Indonesia-based Fintech platforms and services have continued to receive substantial investments despite the COVID outbreak. These Fintechs have acquired a significant portion of the total funds invested in Indonesian startups throughout 2020. According to reports, Fintechs in the country have acquired more capital than software-as-a-service… Read More

January 14, 2021 @ 11:36 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Grab Financial Group (GFG), the Fintech services division of Grab, has revealed that it has secured more than $300 million in capital through its Series A investment round – which was led by Hanwha Asset Management Co. Ltd., a South Korea based asset management firm…. Read More

January 14, 2021 @ 11:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

UnionBank in the Philippines has teamed up with FinScore, an alternative credit scoring solution provider that’s powered by advanced analytics and the latest telco data. Through the partnership, both organizations will aim to promote market efficiencies and help consumers access a wide range of digital… Read More

January 14, 2021 @ 7:33 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

DiskarTech, which is Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation’s (RCBC) digital banking platform, has become the number 1 finance or Fintech app in the Philippines to have launched services in 2020 across distribution platforms in terms of total downloads, according to App Annie (a provider of analytics… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 10:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Malaysia-based microLEAP, a platform that provides conventional and Islamic or Shariah-compliant peer-to-peer (P2P) financing options, has acquired RM 3.25 million (appr. $800,000) in capital. The platform’s investment round consists of RM 1.25 million in equity and a RM 2 million advance. The funds raised will… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 9:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Touch ‘n Go (TNG) Group’s subsidiary TNG Digital Sdn Bhd (TNGD) is reportedly one of the first digital wallet providers to be given conditional approval to serve as a Recognized Market Operator (RMO) by the Securities Commission of Malaysia (SC). TNG’s management noted that they’re… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 9:30 am By JD Alois  |  

OurCrowd is a leading venture marketplace where smaller (accredited) investors can participate in private securities offerings alongside really big investors. A recent example is where JumpCloud, an enterprise cloud service provider, raised $100 million in a Series E Round. OurCrowd’s name was alongside high profile… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 2:24 am By Omar Faridi  |  

A recent study released by Juniper Research has revealed that the total number of QR code payment users is expected to surpass 2.2 billion within 5 years, which is up significantly from 1.5 billion in 2020. This would be almost 30% of all mobile phone… Read More

January 12, 2021 @ 10:22 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A recently published whitepaper from Massachusetts-based International Data Corporation (IDC) and Huawei examines how banking institutions across the globe have been dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. The paper identifies or recommends the way forward in a post COVID world which is now considered the “new… Read More

January 12, 2021 @ 9:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A major part of Indonesia’s economy is supported by SMEs, which represent approximately 60% of the nation’s GDP. Many of the small businesses depend on a lot of manual processes and bookkeeping, however, the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic has led to SMBs becoming more… Read More

January 11, 2021 @ 11:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

i2c, a digital payments and banking technology provider, has revealed that it was selected to develop Pakistan’s TAG, which is described as a “digital-native” financial app. TAG is the latest Fintech solution in the country to be granted approval by the State Bank of Pakistan… Read More

January 11, 2021 @ 10:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The economies of Southeast Asian countries performed quite well in 2020 despite the COVID-19 outbreak and related challenges. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has projected a contraction of 3.8% for the region during 2020, which doesn’t seem too bad when compared to the Eurozone’s at… Read More

January 11, 2021 @ 10:23 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Banking institutions and online payments providers in India have asked the nation’s government to bring back the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on RuPay, which is an international card payment service launched by the National Payments Corporation of India. Digital payments providers in the country also… Read More

January 11, 2021 @ 9:27 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Dubai-headquartered investment advisory firm Sarwa is reportedly expanding its business operations to Saudi Arabia after acquiring a temporary or experimental Fintech license from Saudi’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA). This development has come about a year after Sarwa secured $8.4 million in capital, which was one… Read More

January 10, 2021 @ 11:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

Propine, a digital asset custody service provider, has “graduated” from the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Fintech Sandbox program. The company has been granted a Capital Markets Services (CMS) license and is now fully regulated by MAS. It is the first regulated firm of its… Read More

January 10, 2021 @ 9:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Citi and Grab, which is Southeast Asia’s super app, have extended their partnership in consumer lending with the introduction of the bank’s API-powered lending solution for consumers in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Starting off in Singapore with additional markets in the APAC region to… Read More

January 10, 2021 @ 7:33 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Deutsche Bank Securities Services and Hashstacs Pte Ltd (STACS) are reportedly working on a proof-of-concept (PoC) that will involve exploring the technological and practical feasibility of digital assets. The PoC will take into consideration factors like the level of interoperability, liquidity, cross-border connectivity, and various… Read More

January 10, 2021 @ 7:00 pm By Jayanta Roy  |  

Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending has come a long way since its early days as a casual crowdfunding platform. Today, individual borrowers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can access loans without the hassle of going through banks and lengthy financial assessments. Still, P2P lending is a… Read More

January 10, 2021 @ 6:39 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Myanmar-based Wave Money, a mobile financial services provider, facilitated 12 trillion Myanmar kyat (appr. $ 8.7 billion) in total transactions during 2020 as the country’s residents increasingly began using digital financial services following the COVID-19 outbreak. Wave Money confirmed that these transaction volumes were nearly… Read More

January 10, 2021 @ 5:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Qatar-based Fintech firm Cwallet has finalized a $220,000 pre-seed investment round from its founders and MBK Holding, the company’s CEO has confirmed. Michael Javier, who’s also Co-founder at Cwallet, noted that the Fintech company is now working cooperatively with the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) in… Read More