Payments firm GHL Systems has now enabled GrabPay e-wallet acceptance at Shell petrol stations nationwide in Malaysia in a bid to further expand its cashless offerings. As Grab evolves to become an app that addresses the daily needs of its users, its e-wallet can be used to pay for a multitude of services; ranging from transportation, food delivery, goods delivery, bill payments, offline payments and and now to include offline payment across Shell stations nationwide. Sean S. Hesh, Group CEO of GHL Systems said, “With an ever increasing adoption of e-wallet among Malaysians, it only makes perfect sense to provide…

Finology, a Malaysian fintech that specialises in enabling seamless lending and insurance for consumers and businesses, announced that it has won the regional finals to represent Asia at the Seedstars World Competition 2020/21. From over 5,000 applicants, 94 startups from emerging markets were selected to advance to the regional stage of the competition. Moving forward, only 20 were selected to the regional finals for a chance to secure a spot at the grand finale, the final round of competition. The evaluation made was based on brand value, traction, profitability, scalability and market maturity. Representing Asia, Finology is now set to…

CoinGecko, the world’s leading independent data aggregator hailing from Malaysia, is now on a mission to promote art appreciation and help artists connect with more audiences through the launch of NFT Spotlight. Prior to this, CoinGecko launched “NFT of the Day” which features one interesting artwork every day in order to drive awareness of art to the wider crypto community. Building on this, CoinGecko will now be working directly with crypto artists and provide a platform to showcase the artists’ backstory as well as their finest work. CoinGecko’s NFT Spotlight is a platform for artists, both new and seasoned, to…

Fatberry, a Malaysian B2C insurance online supermarket, has raised a RM2.5 million (approximately US$600,000) during a pre-Series A funding round. The round was led by strategic investor Stockholm-based publicly traded venture builder Abelco Investment Group AB. Other investors who participated include ASX-listed Fatfish Group Limited and angel investors from Malaysia and Singapore. Fatberry said in a statement that the new funding will be used to carry out its expansion and product development plans. In a press statement, they said that the insurtech platform commercially launched in April 2020 during the beginning of the pandemic, however the company had already previously…

pitchIN will launch an equity crowdfunding campaign of its own on 19 April 2021 to raise funds for business expansion and new business units. The company seeks to raise between RM 3 million and RM 5 million from investors. This will be pitchIN’s first ever fundraising exercise. Separately, pitchIN will raise RM 5 million from an institutional investor. pitchIN CEO Sam Shafie explains, “Since we started, pitchIN has been self-funded. And during that time, we have become Malaysia’s leading equity crowdfunding (ECF) platform. We are now raising between RM 3 mil to RM 5 mil through equity crowdfunding, in addition…

Luno, a digital asset exchange in Malaysia approved by the Securities Commission, announced that the company is now managing more than RM 1 billion of digital assets less than two years since the company relaunched in Malaysia in 2019. Luno’s digital assets under management comprise four approved cryptocurrencies; Bitcoin (BTC), 62%; Ethereum (ETH), 23%; Ripple (XRP), 10%; and Litecoin (LTC), 5%. At the same time, Luno reported that it has surpassed half a million verified users (588,994) in Malaysia with an influx of new users in the latter parts of 2020 representing over 300% quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) customer growth and RM3.97…

Payments platform Fave has been acquired today by Pine Labs, an Asian commerce platforms in a deal valued over US$ 45 million (RM 185 million). With this acquisition, Indian consumers will be able to use Fave app later this year to save across 500,000 merchant network points powered by Pine Labs across 3,700 cities in India. According to Fave, they have has enabled 6 million consumers in SEA to save over US$400 million across 40,000 retailers since 2016. The acquisition will help both companies accelerate their growth in the Asia region and unlock consumer opportunities across retail, F&B, fashion, and…

The Securities Commission Malaysia today issued a statement today saying that they have reprimanded Remitano for operating a digital asset exchange in Malaysia without authorisation from the SC. The SC said that it views this transgression as serious and is working with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block Remitano’s website.The regulator has also written to Google and Apple to disable the operation of Remitano’s mobile applications in Malaysia. Operating a DAX without obtaining SC’s approval to be registered as a Registered Market Operator (RMO) is an offence under Section 7 of the Capital Markets and Services Act…

Six months into its launch, Maybank SME Digital Financing has approved RM1 billion of financing, serving more than 8,200 Small and Medium sized Enterprise (SME), of which 85% or 6,950 are start-ups & microenterprises. In addition, they said all applications that were eligible for instant decisions received their approval and disbursements in less than 5 minutes. Maybank claims that its SME Digital Financing is the first in the market to offer an end-to-end digital experience, with straight-through processing, from application to approval and disbursement. Eligible existing customers can receive the approval status for their application in 10 minutes, and the…

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) via its enterprise and public sector business solutions arm, TM ONE, today inked a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) with Sunline Technology (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd to enable the transformation of banks and financial institutions with cutting-edge cloud-based solutions. Sunline is a banking software and technology services company and was ranked in IDC’s “China Top 50 Fintech”. With this agreement, TM ONE and Sunline will leverage each other’s strengths and expertise in financial technology, technical capabilities and resources to enrich digital financial services and drive the adoption of digital banking in the country. Through this partnership, both parties…

PayNet, the national payments network and shared central infrastructure for Malaysia’s financial markets, has appointed FassPay, a subsidiary Soft Space, to be a third-party acquirer (TPA) for MyDebit, the nation’s domestic debit card scheme. This appointment allows Fasspay to acquire small merchants and offer them its suite of payment solutions which includes their Tap on Phone Payment solution, Fasstap — a solution that enables merchants to use their own mobile devices as POS terminal to accept card payments. Interested merchants in signing up with Fasspay do not need to be physically present as the entire onboarding and approval process, including…

RinggitPlus, a financial marketplace owned by Jirnexu, has launched RinggitPlus Advance, a new one-to-one financial digital financial planning service for Malaysians. With the launch of RinggitPlus Advance, the fintech startup is tapping into its experience of digitalising a traditional industry and enabling access for Malaysians to engage the services of a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) “Since 2012, RinggitPlus has been at the forefront of providing value and transparency to consumers looking for financial products and services. I am truly excited that through RinggitPlus Advance, we are expanding our mission in the financial planning space,” said Hann Liew, co-founder and director…

Versa, Malaysia’s latest digital cash management platform, today announced that it has achieved over RM10million in deposits in just three months since its soft launch in January. To date, Versa has registered more than 4,000 accounts averaging deposit amounts of RM2,700 per user. The company said that the current low interest rate environment is leading to greater customer demand for better solutions that can meet their financial needs adding that with a low average 12-month interest rate of 1-2% and a lack of flexibility in depositing and withdrawing funds, many may find it challenging to commit to fixed deposit offerings.…

Boost issued a press statement saying that it will be prioritising micro-enterprises and SMEs this upcoming Ramadan by offering low-cost financing support to use as working capital for Ramadan sales through ‘Aspirasi Capital for Boost’. They said that this financing comes at an opportune time with merchants gearing up for Ramadan, which requires investments such as bazaar space rental and raw material or ingredient costs. Through ‘Aspirasi Capital for Boost’, MSMEs can apply for low-cost micro-financing up to RM20,000 per MSME for an 18-month tenure, interest-free with no repayment for the first six (6) months. When repayment starts on the…

Pine Labs, an Asian merchant commerce platform backed by Mastercard, announced the launch of its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) offering in Malaysia. The company provides a tech-first offline payments solution where on a single terminal multiple credit issuers can make BNPL offers to customers. They further added that CIMB Bank, AmBank, HSBC Bank, AFFIN BANK, and RHB Bank are already on Pine Labs’ BNPL platform. Pine Labs claims that it has already achieved success with offline BNPL services in India where it has 95% market share. Late last year, Pine Labs had announced its intent to launch its BNPL…

Ripple, announced that it has agreed to acquire 40% of cross-border payments specialist Tranglo. This partnership will allow Ripple to meet growing customer demand in the region and expand the reach of On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), which uses the digital asset XRP to send money instantly and reduce working capital needs. As a pioneer for cross-border payment services, Tranglo will play a critical role in supporting existing corridors, such as the Philippines, and introducing new ODL corridors within its current network. As Ripple broadens its ODL footprint in the region, RippleNet customers using ODL will also be able to leverage Ripple’s…

In Malaysia, incumbents are gearing up for the entrance of the country’s first digital banks, accelerating digital transformation, planning standalone ventures, and partnering up with fintechs, top executives from CIMB Group, Bank Islam, RHB Banking Group, and Backbase said during a webinar last week. Bank Negara Malaysia released the much anticipated digital banking framework in December 2020. Up to five licenses will be up for grabs, which the central bank will grant by the first quarter of 2022. The forthcoming launch of Malaysia’s new digital banks are accelerating digital transformation in the banking sector, forcing incumbents to “raise the bar…

Touch ‘n Go Group (TNG) formally announced today the launch of GO+, a financially inclusive investment product for which it expects 1 million users in 2021. GO+ allows TNG’s Malaysian e-wallet users above the age of 18 years old to gain access to low risk money market investments for as low as RM10. The new offering enables TNG users to earn returns on their GO+ balance which will be credited daily. In addition to this, GO+ will also carry a ‘cash-out’ feature that will allow movement of funds seamlessly between the user’s e-wallet and designated bank account. In order to…

Homegrown e-wallet Boost announced that it is now part of the PayNet Real Time Retail Payment Platform (RPP) and will adopt DuitNow QR, effective today. DuitNow QR is Malaysia’s national QR code standard established by Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet) under Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework (ICTF). The DuitNow QR functions as a standardised and unified QR code that offers a cashless, contactless and convenient way of shopping for all e-wallet users including those not on the Boost platform. This benefit extends to Boost merchants too where only ONE QR code is needed to accept cashless and contactless…

Aspirasi, a digital micro-financing and micro-insurance service provider under Axiata Digital, is now offering a flexible and fully-digital financing solution for online shoppers through Aspirasi CashNow. Available on e-commerce platform Lazada Malaysia, Aspirasi CashNow is open for application by all Malaysians aged 18 to 65 years old with an active Lazada wallet account. Aspirasi CashNow is Shariah-compliant and financing amounts start from RM500 up to RM2,500. Shoppers can apply through the Lazada website or app which reportedly takes only 3 minutes. Aspirasi said that eligible applicants will receive their funds credited into their Lazada Wallet within 48 hours. They will…