Malaysian based fintech startup Jirnexu, has closed an US$11 million Series B round. Making their second investment in Jirnexu, Japan-based SBI Group led the latest round, joined by new US-based investor SIG Asia Investments (SIG). With total funding now US$17 million, Jirnexu is among the best funded startups in Malaysia. This follows their previous round in October 2017. Yuen Tuck Siew, CEO of Jirnexu said, “Jirnexu has been growing rapidly since our last funding round, achieving 100 per cent year-on-year growth in 2017. We will do that again in 2018. Already serving over 30 financial service institutions in Malaysia, this round…

Earlier last month, I had the pleasure of joining TM ONE’S BFSI Open Day as a panelist. Joining me was veterans from the TM ONE team and we discussed in depth the state of play for digital transformation in the banking and insurance sector. Digital Is No Longer a Matter of Why but How The immediate consensus that the panelists reached is that we are far beyond the point of why banks and insurance companies should go digital but rather a more relevant question would be how. As it stands, statistics from the Department of Statistics in Malaysia shows that…

United Overseas Bank (UOB) recently announced that they have signed a MOU with WORQ and Common Ground to offer up to 20% off the rental of the co-working spaces. Startups and SME’s who are customers of UOB will be able to access these preferential rates. On top of inking the MOU with WORQ and Common Ground, UOB has also signed the same agreement with 80RR Fintech Hub SG in Singapore and EV Hive in Indonesia. The recently signed deals combined with their existing partnership with Toong in Vietnam totals up to 33 co-working locations across South East Asia. According to…

Malaysia’s fintech scene is becoming increasingly active, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of all the important events, here’s April’s edition of our news roundup featuring the top  stories in the Fintech Malaysia scene. If you’re interested to check out March’s news round up you can read more here Fintech Funding Galore In the month of April, there seems to be an abundance of going around.  Below are the fintech companies that received funding last month: The increase of attention from international investor signals a positive outlook on this region and sector. 9 Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Malaysia Registered with…

Ripple, the enterprise blockchain solution for global payments, is announcing that five new customers across Europe and Asia will use xVia to power frictionless payments over RippleNet, among the companies announced is Malaysia’s very own fintech company MoneyMatch. xVia is an API solution that just requires one standard integration to enable payment originators to reap the benefits of Ripplenet, which includes faster entry into new markets, lower operational costs, increased speed and end-to-end visibility over payments journey. Though there are contentions in the community about Ripple with it being highly centralised, the community generally agrees that it uses a consensus…

Soft Space announced the closing of a Series B investment with Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company (SMCC)  a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), which is one of the largest financial groups in Japan. Founded in 2012 Soft Space is one of the leading fintech players in Malaysia currently serving over 20 major financial institution across 11 countries. We’ve also previously selected Soft Space as one of the 12 Fintech companies that should be on your watchlist. Eyeing Expansion in Japan and Beyond The investment follows the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Business Alliance Agreement that happened in…

Funding Societies, the largest peer-to-peer (P2P) financing platform in Malaysia, has raised RM100 million in Series B funding. Led by Softbank Ventures Korea, the funding round also includes existing investors Sequoia India, Alpha JWC Ventures (Indonesia) and Golden Gate Ventures. Qualgro and LINE Ventures also participated in this over-subscribed round. Additionally, the platform has raised credit lines from banks and financial institutions to further support SMEs. This fundraise, largest by a P2P lending platform in Southeast Asia, will help realize Funding Societies’ vision of financial inclusion for Southeast Asia. Softbank Ventures Korea, an early stage venture capital arm of Softbank…

Popular cryptocurrency exchange platform, Luno, today announced that they have formally registered with Bank Negara as a reporting institution as required by the policy document: Anti- Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) – Digital Currencies (Sector 6) which was issued earlier last February. The policy document sets out the minimum requirements and standards that a reporting institution must observe — to increase the transparency of activities relating to digital currencies and ensure effective and robust AML/CFT control measures are put in place. It is important to note that while Luno is registered as an reporting entity, cryptocurrency exchanges…

Allianz Malaysia Berhad is partnering with PolicyStreet to provide Malaysians with better online access to insurance products. PolicyStreet is an insurance technology company which offers an online curated platform with an aim to provide simple and affordable insurance solutions that cater for all customer needs. Through the new partnership, PolicyStreet is offering four of Allianz digital products. This news comes in on the heels of a of yet another insurtech partnership arrangement between PolicyStreet and AXA Affin announced on the same day signalling an increasingly mature insurtech sector in Malaysia. “In re-engineering the way we do business – being digital-centric…

Malaysia’s fintech scene is becoming increasingly active, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of all the important events, here’s March’s edition of our news roundup featuring the top 5 stories in the Fintech Malaysia scene. If you’re interested to check out February’s news round up you can read more here Grab Announces Grab Financial With Grab’s merger with Uber grabbing all the headlines recently it’s easy to miss their previous announcement on their fintech play. Following Grab’s previous announcement on GrabPay and acquisition of Kudo, Anthony Tan, Co Founder and Group CEO announced the company’s ambitions to further strengthen their play in…

Hong Leong Bank introduces an AI enabled virtual assistant named HALI, which it claims will help it to improve operations efficiency by 60% over the course of the year. HALI, is powered by Hyperlab which specialises in artificial intelligence (A. I.) powered chat, voice and search products. The chatbot developed for HLB is set to assist two main core support functions – Human Resource and Branch Operations. It will take over in answering staff queries on policies and procedures, a function previously undertaken by staff members from the two divisions. By learning and automating the thousands of queries asked every…

iPay88 today announces its latest offering known as the ‘Virtual Account’ – a payment solution that is targeted at the country’s ‘underbanked’ communities. Malaysia has a total population of 31.3 million as of 2017, with about 22.6 million being adult population. However according to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), 8 per cent of this adult population were still ‘underbanked’ – meaning they do not own a bank account or credit card and need to go outside of the banking system to meet their financial needs. Executive Director of iPay88, Chan Kok Long says that this ‘underbanked’ community makes up the gap…

Malaysians will soon be the first to earn gold by recycling their plastic bottles and aluminum cans. Southeast Asian fintech firm HelloGold and Malaysia’s reverse-vending machine (RVM) company KLEAN are implementing a recycling scheme that offers Malaysians 0.00059 grams of investment-grade gold for each recycled plastic bottle and each aluminum can. Anyone can start earning gold by first downloading the HelloGold app from the Google Play Store or Apple Store and registering for an account. Once registered, users can bring their plastic bottles and aluminum cans to any KLEAN RVM for recycling. After depositing the bottles or cans in the…

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and Bank Negara (BNM) established the Brokerage Industry Digitisation Group (BRIDGe), a joint working group between regulators and industry to accelerate the digitisation of the stockbroking industry. BRIDGe aims to accelerate the digitisation of the brokerage industry to enhances operational efficiencies and service standards. The group will encompass Securities Commission Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia and industry participants including brokers and banking institutions. Commenting on the matter Tan Sri Ranjit Singh, Chairman, Securities Commission Malaysia said, “The full objective of what we’re trying to do is to work with the industry to find a much more…

CIMB Bank Berhad, through its branch that is being set up in the Philippines, CIMB Bank Philippines Inc., recently entered into partnership agreements with FINTQ and Bayad Center Inc both affiliates of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (“PLDT”) group of companies. FINTQ is a local leader in providing digital financial solutions and interactions. Among the various aspects, the partnership with FINTQ will allow CIMB to leverage on the subscriber base and customer database of Lendr, one of FINTQ’s proprietary platforms. Lendr is a fully digital end to end loan origination platform  To date Lendr already has established partnership with…

Start-ups that are members of the FinTech Association of Malaysia (FAOM) will be receiving free insurance coverage from Allianz Malaysia. Allianz will be offering a free annual Group Personal Accident (GPA) coverage to current startup members of the FAOM. Any Malaysian start-ups that comprise of less than 30 employees may also register with FAOM in order to be entitled to the sponsorship. “Allianz is passionate about driving innovation. In coming up with this initiative, we want to help start-ups relieve the burden of certain issues that could hinder their growth; financial liabilities arising from employee accidents is a huge…

Vickers Venture Partners, Southeast Asia’s largest VC, announced the opening of its Malaysian headquarters. Vickers Venture Partner Advisors, based in Kuala Lumpur, will be the newest outpost of the Vickers Global Network and will focus on realising Malaysia’s large innovative and disruptive potential. Dr Finian Tan, Chairman and Co-Founder of Vickers Venture Partners, said “Southeast Asia is one of the key pillars to our investment strategy. We view the initiatives of the Malaysian Government, led by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), as one of the key attractions of Malaysia. Malaysia also represents an ideal location for Vickers as it…

Valyou, in partnership with Mutual Trust Bank (MTB), has introduced wallet-to-wallet remittance from Malaysia to Bangladesh. This first-of-its-kind integration enables migrant workers in Malaysia to transfer money directly to any bKash account in Bangladesh using Valyou Mobile Wallet app. Valyou CEO, Mr. Khuram Malik said, “Bangladeshis who are largely working in manufacturing and construction represent one of the largest economic migrant segments in Malaysia. We are excited to bring more convenience and peace of mind for them to send their hard-earned money home safely. “Working together with MTB, we are able to offer instant money transfer to bKash from Valyou…

CIMB Bank Berhad has added new features to its mobile application, the CIMB Enhanced Virtual Assistant (EVA), to bring further personalised, convenience and improved experience to its customers. Launched in December 2016, CIMB EVA has delivered in enabling account overviews and transactions through chat or quick keyword access. EVA was recently enhanced to include Spend Analyser and natural language conversational capabilities. These features are made available through collaboration with Singaporean fintech companies like MoneyThor and Active.Ai. With CIMB EVA’s Spend Analyser which was done in collaboration with MoneyThor, customers can manage their accounts better and make smarter financial decisions via…

The nominees for the Malaysia Fintech Awards 2018 has finally been announced, as this is the first event at this scale that is recognising the achievements of the industry we’re really excited to see who the winners will be. The organisers has also confirmed during their press conference that Prime Minister YAB Dato’ Seri Najib will be present during the award night as the guest of honour which will be held on the 6th of March in KLCC. It is indeed encouraging to see the highest level of the government in Malaysia recognising and embracing fintech. Here’s a quick…