The ongoing transition to digital channels creates an opportunity for banks to serve more customers, expand market share, and increase revenue at lower cost.

Crucially, banks that pursue this opportunity also can access the bigger, richer data sets required to fuel advanced-analytics (AA) and ML decision engines.

Deployed at scale, these decision-making capabilities powered by AI can give the bank a decisive competitive edge by generating significant incremental value for customers, partners, and the bank.

Banks that aim to compete in global and regional markets increasingly influenced by digital ecosystems will need a well-rounded AI-and-analytics capability stack comprising four main layers: reimagined engagement, AI-powered decision making, core technology and data infrastructure, and a leading-edge operating model.

The layers of the AI-bank capability stack are interdependent and must work in unison to deliver value, as discussed in the first article in our series on the AI bank of the future. In our second article, we examined how AI-first banks are reimagining customer engagement to provide superior experiences across diverse bank platforms and partner ecosystems.

Also Read: gojek’s Bank Jago unveils financial services app that centres around users’ daily life

In the current article, we focus on the primary AA/ML decision-making capabilities required to understand and respond to customers’ fast-evolving needs with precision, speed, and efficiency.

Banks that leverage machine-learning models to determine in (near) real-time the best way to engage with each customer have the potential to increase value in four ways:

• Stronger customer acquisition. Banks gain an edge by creating superior customer experiences with end-to-end automation and using advanced analytics to craft highly personalised messages at each step of the customer acquisition journey.
• Higher customer lifetime value. Banks can increase the lifetime value of customers by engaging with them continuously and intelligently to strengthen each relationship across diverse products and services.
• Lower operating costs. Banks can lower costs by automating as fully as possible document processing, review, and decision making, particularly in acquisition and servicing.
• Lower credit risk. To lower credit risks, banks can adopt a more sophisticated screening of prospective customers and early detection of behaviours that signal a higher risk of default and fraud.

As banks think about how to design and build a highly flexible and fully automated decision-making layer of the AI-bank capability stack, they can benefit from organising their efforts around four interdependent elements:

• Leveraging AA/ML models for automated, personalised decisions across the customer life cycle
• Building and deploying AA/ML models at scale
• Augmenting AA/ML models with what we call “edge” capabilities to reduce costs, streamline customer journeys, and enhance the overall experience
• Building an enterprise-wide digital-marketing engine to translate insights generated in the decision-making layer into a set of coordinated messages delivered through the bank’s engagement layer

In the full report, AI powered decision making for the bank of the future, we examine each of these interdependent elements and their applications in detail.

The rapid improvement of AI-powered technologies spurs competition on speed, cost, experience, and intelligent propositions. To remain competitive, banks must engage customers with highly personalised and timely content to build loyalty.

Also Read: How startups can aid Southeast Asia’s Open Banking landscape

Personalised offers with tailored communication delivered at the right time through the customer’s preferred channel can help banks maximise the lifetime value of each customer relationship and reinforce the organisation’s market leadership.

To achieve these benefits, banks must build AI-powered decision-making capabilities fuelled by a rich mixture of internal and external data and augmented by edge technologies.

The core technology and data infrastructure required to collect and curate increasingly diverse and voluminous data sets is the topic of the next article in our series on the AI-bank capability stack.

Special thanks to Akshat Agarwal, Bangalore-based McKinsey associate partner, and Charu Singhal Mumbai-based McKinsey consultant, for co-authoring this report, as well as Milan Mitra and Yihong Wu for their contributions to this article.

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The first few years were challenging as the crypto market faced very low interest from the general public. We had to rely on tight financing and management of resources to tide us through. The 2017 bull run, on the other hand, ushered in huge changes in crypto trading and proved to be a big break for us.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news, January 9: Coinhako to offer 100 fiat-crypto pairings, SoftBank will no longer take controlling stake in WeWork

As Bitcoin touched US$20,000 in 2017, Coinhako’s trading volume increased year-over-year (YOY) by 1,000 per cent. The boom was on!

Growing from strength to strength

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Funtap, a Vietnamese mobile gaming company, has invested in local digital payments platform 9PAY, DealStreetAsia has reported.

The seven-digital US-dollar investment is part of Funtap’s plan to expand its technology offerings, the report said quoting CEO Minh Bui.

We have reached out to 9Pay for more details on the deal. We will update this article as and when hear from them.

Founded in 2015, Funtap provides mobile game publishing and development. Its games are also available in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Last year, the company secured a seven-digit investment in a Series A round of financing, led by Makers Fund.

Meanwhile, 9PAY was established in 2018. Licensed by the State Bank of Vietnam, the fintech platform offers a suite of services including a payment gateway, a digital wallet, and cash services for individual and corporates.

Also Read: 2021: Predicting another bumper (un)predictable year for payments

According to Bain, digital payments in Southeast Asia is forecast to hit US$1 trillion in gross transaction value (GTV) by 2025. Riding on the positive outlook on the payments sector, Funtap’s foray into it follows the playbook of other gaming companies.

Local internet unicorn VNG Corporation and Garena, the gaming unit of US-listed Sea Group both have embedded digital payments services onto their platforms.

VNG owns local e-wallet provider ZaloPay, while Sea’s digital payments arm SeaMoney operates AirPay in Vietnam.

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Image Credit: Funtap

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Indonesia-based edutech startup Ruangguru has received US$55 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from GGV Capital.

With the new financing, Ruangguru plans to further accelerate its business expansion across Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.

The latest round comes just a year after the Jakarta-headquartered firm closed a US$150-million Series C round led by Global Atlantic and GGV Capital.

Co-founder Iman Usman said: “Ruangguru now has strong investors with education industry expertise. We plan to leverage their expertise and network to further improve our products and our team. This will help us to provide a world-class offering of education products leveraging technology to our students and workforce in the region to make them globally competitive. We will continue to fulfil our mission to enable better access to quality education to millions of learners in Southeast Asia.”

Also Read: Indonesian edutech startup Ruangguru raises Series B round led by UOB Venture Management

Launched in 2014 as an online marketplace for private tutors, the company has since branched out into providing a learning management system (LMS). Its online platform allows teachers to create content and assign school works for students to work on. It also offers an exam practice feature on its website, as well as a mobile app that Devara dubbed as the ‘Uber for tutoring service’.

In 2020, Ruangguru expanded to Thailand by launching StartDee in 2020, after rolling out KienGuru in Vietnam in 2019. It claims to have over 22 million users.

The company has also said that this is also the first financial year where it has achieved profitability. Not surprising as COVID-19 accelerated online learning globally.

“As Southeast Asia’s leading provider of quality online education, Ruangguru is poised to further transform and improve the landscape for K-12 and adult learning,” said Evan Feinberg, Partner at Tiger Global Management.

“Since the previous Series C round, we have witnessed first hand Ruangguru’s unwavering commitment to education, especially during the trying times of the COVID-19. We will continue to support companies that are bringing a lasting impact to our future through education technology,” added  Jixun Foo, Managing Partner at GGV Capital.

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Image Credit: Ruangguru

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Grosvenor Asia Pacific, the Asian arm of London-based international property company Grosvenor Group, has invested in Taronga Ventures’s RealTech Fund.

US-based PGIM Real Estate, CBRE, and others also joined the round.

“There is no doubt that our industry is being significantly impacted by technology. Partnering with Taronga, which has established itself as leaders in the space, gives us the opportunity to stay at the cusp of innovation and gain investment exposure to dynamic and growing companies carefully selected and supported by the Taronga team,” said Benjamin Cha, CEO of Grosvenor Asia Pacific.

Grosvenor Asia Pacific was launched in 1994 and is focused on both investment and development in residential, office and retail sectors in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai.

Taronga Ventures is a technology and innovation investor focused on the real estate sector and the wider built environment. The group consists of the RealTech Ventures Fund, the RealTechX Growth Program and Taronga Advisory and has offices in Singapore and Australia.

Also Read: Taronga Ventures expands its RealTechX programme to support Singapore’s proptech startups

The Fund invests in scalable technology and innovation that enhances or challenges the traditional real estate and infrastructure sectors. It is also focused on investing in strategic opportunities and providing its institutional partners with a first-mover advantage, whilst maintaining a focus on creating a better built environment, through sustainable and responsible investment practices.

“We have been working with Grosvenor Asia Pacific and their colleagues in the wider Grosvenor Group for many years and see a tremendous opportunity for emerging technology companies to scale within the Grosvenor portfolio globally,” opined Jonathan Hannam, Managing Partner of Taronga Ventures.

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Image Credit: Grosvenor

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