Australia Stock Exchange (ASX) listed IOUpay announced today the official launch of its Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) service, myIOU. IOUpay is a subsidiary of Malaysian technology firm iSentric who was best known within the industry for providing mobile banking solutions to local banks.
Together with the launch, IOUpay announced partnerships with EasyStore, U Mobile’s GoBiz, Razer Merchant Services, and MYP1, which they claim gains them access to 75,000 merchants.
Despite only announcing their launch today, IOUpay has been going on an aggressive media campaign claiming to have “first mover advantage” in Malaysia and a market leader in South East Asia, presumably to bump up their stock prices.
They have also made misleading statements in the past that they have secured money lending license in Malaysia which allows them to provide BNPL services. It’s important to note that BNPL is not currently regulated in Malaysia and there a no license any party can secure.
The campaign seems to have worked in the Australian stock market too with IOUpay having completed an $AUD 50 million placement just in February and their share prices going up by 4000% compared to the previous year.
It is a bold claim especially considering the fact that in Malaysia, major tech players like Grab and Shopee have both launched their BNPL services and startups like Split, hoolah, Atome and even players like GHL have gone into multiple partnerships including one with Visa.
When you consider that it is a stretch to claim any leadership position even within its own home turf, it’s even stranger that they described themselves as a market leader in South East Asia when you have firms like GoTo (formerly Gojek) and Ant Group-backed Akulaku in the Indonesian BNPL space as well as many other strong contenders within the region.
While the market potential for IOUpay is real and the funds it has raised to compete in these markets is commendable, their chest-thumping has been less than accurate.
