There was a time when Boost lived in the small moments: helping people pay for bubble tea or a mamak bill without fumbling for cash and change. Fast-forward to today, and Boost has become one of the key players driving Malaysia’s cashless ambitions.
Backed by Axiata Group, as one of Malaysia’s pioneering e-wallet providers, Boost has since grown into a regional fintech leader, and launched Boost Bank, the country’s first homegrown digital bank a year ago.
Boost is now staring down at its biggest goal yet: can a homegrown player from KL stand toe-to-toe with Southeast Asia’s heavyweights?
In the latest Fintech Fireside Asia session, our Chief Editor Vincent Fong chats with Boost Group CEO Sheyantha Abeykoon. We uncover how soon Boost is turning towards a profit, and what it will take to turn Malaysia’s cashless success into something larger in the years ahead.
What Does Winning Look Like to Boost?
“There are two elements to this,” shares Sheyantha.
The first involves taking Malaysia to its full potential. But the bigger questions involve getting there.
“From a success perspective, a large part of our customers should be able to seamlessly adopt all our services across a single platform, and I think we are slowly evolving to that,” he adds.
He explains that Boost serves two key segments in Malaysia: underserved consumers, often from the B40 and M40 income groups, and small businesses. Reaching both audiences effectively, he says, is central to realising the company’s ambitions at home.
But Malaysia is only part of the picture. Boost’s sights have always been set on the region, and its parent company, Axiata, gives it a natural advantage with footprints across several Southeast Asian markets.
Indonesia is already showing promise, with Cambodia and Bangladesh emerging as early experiments. Each market comes with its own risks, and Sheyantha stresses the need to be deliberate in choosing where and how to expand.
Beyond geography, there’s also a financial goal: becoming a multi‑billion‑dollar company built on sustainable profit rather than hype.
“We obviously want to be a multi-billion-dollar company, but we also want to be a company that generates a sizeable amount of profit to support that valuation.”
That balance of growth at home, careful expansion abroad, and profitability that lasts is what success will ultimately look like for Boost.
How Boost is Turning Telco Data into a Strategic Fintech Edge
While Boost initially started out as an agnostic fintech, open to collaborating with telcos or partners, Sheyantha says its relationship with Axiata has since evolved into a more deliberate synergy.
One prime example is its collaboration with CelcomDigi, where Boost uses call data records (CDR) to access creditworthiness. This approach allows the company to underwrite and extend financing to customers who are invisible to traditional credit bureaus.
“This (call data records) was something people spoke about for seven to eight years, but no one really cracked the code,’ he divulges. “We’ve been doing it for 24 months now, and we find the models work better, that there are a lot more green shoots with telco.”
This data-driven model is already being replicated in Indonesia and could serve as a blueprint for other markets. The strategy leans on three factors: the depth of telco data, alignment with local operating companies, and a shift toward embedded finance.
“In the telco world now, a lot of customers are on a telco app. Telcos have also digitised their interfaces, which makes it easier for us to embed products.”
For Boost, this embedded model could be its real competitive edge: quietly integrating into the digital platforms people already use, rather than competing head‑to‑head as another standalone app.
On Hitting the Profitability Bullseye
Boost announced that it is targeting profitability by this year, and Vincent posed the question as to what it’s looking like now.
“We’ve been making good money by being a platform player, and the Boost PayFlex product has been a key driver for us. We will be positive by Q3, maybe going into Q4, but we are pretty much on track there,” Sheyantha informs.
He clarifies that this profitability excludes the bank, which is still in its first year of operations. Instead, the gains come from Boost’s established businesses, particularly merchant services and consumer lending.
@fintechnewsnetwork How do e-wallets even make money? Boost Group CEO Sheyantha explains what’s the key profit drivers for their business. @Boost App #fintech #ewallet #digitalbanking #foryou #fyp #highlights
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The merchant business, under Boost Connect, is already profitable on a standalone basis. Meanwhile, consumer lending has been a key growth engine over the last 12 to 18 months.
The company has also reduced major cost drivers such as cash‑in costs and customer acquisition expenses, shifting its focus from acquiring new users to deepening relationships with existing ones.
“We spend less on customer acquisition and think more about how we can deepen the customer relationship, as opposed to investing in new customer relationships. We’ve also had to reinvent our business model and look at other lines of business to see how we can get there (profitable) in a sustainable manner.”
He adds that it’s not an easy affair, as many companies post one good quarter and fall back into the red.
Boost’s focus has always been on making it work sustainably, and this involves avoiding over-reliance on a single product line, which spreads risks across multiple services so that in a downturn, one segment doesn’t derail the entire business.
On Building a Lasting Legacy
Looking ahead three to five years, Boost’s ambitions extend beyond financial milestones. The group aims to become a multi‑billion‑dollar fintech player, entrenched in multiple Southeast Asian markets, but also to leave a lasting mark on Malaysia’s fintech talent landscape.
@fintechnewsnetwork For Boost’s CEO success is more than just being a billion dollar company. He believes in building the company into a regional fintech champion and building an ecosystem of fintech founders. @Boost App #fintech #digitalbanking #ewallet #financialservices #foryou#fyp #highlight
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Beyond regional and financial ambitions, Boost wants to leave a legacy, including building a generation of fintech leaders who can branch out and write their own stories, whether within Boost or beyond it.
“One of the things we’re quite focused on is our talent development. We want to build expertise in this industry and build a generation of fintech leaders. I take no greater pride than knowing that somebody learnt from here and now has their own startup. We want to leave a legacy of having done something more.”
Discover More About Boost’s Next Chapter
Watch the full Fintech Fireside Asia interview with Sheyantha Abeykoon for deeper insights into Boost’s profitability goals, regional expansion plans, and what success looks like for Boost Bank, Malaysia’s first homegrown digital bank.
