Missed your credit card deadline and calling customer service with the hope of waiving your late fee? Many of us would guilty admit that it has occurred at least once in our lives.

For those who hold multiple credit cards, the problem of tracking credit card deadlines is magnified.

“I have over five credit cards for fuel cashback and shopping discounts. Furthermore, I delay my payments until the last day to maximise my tight cash flow, especially when it comes to running the business,” Co-Founder and CEO of Finory, Kee Hui Jiang, shares with e27 in an interview.

Realising that his current method of tracking deadlines via filing statements by their due dates on his laptop was not a sustainable and efficient solution, he sought to solve this long-standing problem. Thereafter, Finory was born.

A Malaysia-based fintech startup, Finory analyses credit card statement and provide users with key information such as the total amount due, minimum amount, and due dates.

Utilising retrieved data, the app provides timely notifications for users to remind them about upcoming due dates and amount payable. Besides late fees reminders, Finory seeks to provide insights into spending patterns and categories for users to track their personal expenses.

Also Read: This e-credit card allows Filipinos to buy big-ticket items online with easy instalments

“With the non-open banking environment in Malaysia, integrating bank details and statements into an app was a challenge,” Kee shares. Therefore, he came out with an innovative idea to solve this problem with Finory.

Users are required to only forward their monthly bank statement to Finory, where machine learning algorithms will scan through the document and extract relevant information for display on the app.

Building the trust

How does Finory protect the personal privacy of its users?

“We continuously invest in security upgrades to protect user data and privacy. For example, forwarded statements are read and parsed only by the system and no human is required or allowed to read and access the system,” Kee explains. Furthermore, statements are automatically deleted once relevant data has been extracted.

To further safeguard user data against potential cybersecurity incidents, Finory does not store any Personally Identifiable Information (PPI) or key account details such as the CVV number and card expiry date.

Finory was not solely born out of the hard work of Kee. Together with his co-founder and CTO, Hassan, the duo had been working together to build up businesses for more than seven years. Before Finory, Kee and Hassan were founders of PicMote, an online image and design tool for e-commerce shop owners to design their banners. Before PicMote, the co-founders exited an e-commerce business that generated over MYR1 million (US$240,000) in annual revenue.

Building on experience

Drawing on learning experiences from previous ventures, Kee stresses that they served as great learning foundations for building Finory. Citing the example of marketing a business, Kee opined that he formulated the marketing strategy of Finory and execute it swiftly due to the experience gained from PicMote and his e-commerce business.

Elaborating on Finory’s plan for the future, Kee shares the team is working on improving algorithms to enable tracking of spending in specific categories such as groceries, fuel, and shopping. He envisions this would aid users in gathering insights on the suitability of each card by measuring its cashback value against the annual card fee.

Also Read: Indian fintech startup GalaxyCard gets you instant digital credit card free of cost

Building on his vision for Finory to be the go-to personal finance app in Malaysia, Kee plans to integrate a recommendation engine centred around the spending habits of a user to recommend the most suitable credit card.

The young startup is currently fundraising with plans to grow its team of four to expand their suite of financial features as it sets out on its mission to improve the financial literacy of Malaysians, one credit card at a time.

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Image Credit: Finory

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