Tag: Drop Shipping

 

 

Thailand-headquartered digital fashion brand Pomelo has appointed Anders Heikenfeldt, ex-Managing Director of an H&M venture, as its Chief Retail Officer (CRO).

The former H&M executive will be responsible for Pomelo’s retail expansion plans across Southeast Asia. This comes right after Pomelo’s Series C funding round where it managed to raise US$52 million.

He will also be in charge of growing the retail division, developing the company’s omnichannel strategy, and online platform.

“Anders is an exciting new addition to team Pomelo,” said David Jou, CEO and co-founder of Pomelo.

“His appointment reflects Pomelo’s commitment to redefining retail. He’s a great leader and we’re extremely happy to have him on board,” he continued.

Also Read: Pomelo appoints former Lazada CMO Jean Thomas as new CMO

Heikenfeldt has worked with H&M for over 10 years in developing and refining strategies to enhance the retail experience and prior to that, he has also served as COO of at 6ixty 8ight, an online Singaporean lingerie and nightwear store.

Bringing an executive of a multinational clothing-retail company such as H&M will definitely add more value to Pomelo’s current team.

As a fast-growing company, the fashion company has since hired 200 new employees and has opened 10 new stores locally in 2019.

“Southeast Asia is an incredibly fast-growing, unique market with so much potential. I’m excited to be a part of this journey as we continue to expand Pomelo’s retail footprint across the region and provide customers with an innovative, omnichannel shopping experience,” expressed Heikenfeldt.

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Image Credit:  Kai Pilger

 

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Field service automation startup Zinier raises US$90M led by ICONIQ Capital

Zinier, an intelligent field service automation company, today announced that it has raised US$90 million in Series C funding, led by ICONIQ Capital.

Tiger Global Management, Accel, Founders Fund, Nokia-backed NGP Capital, France-based Newfund Capital and Qualcomm Ventures also joined the round.

The funding will support global customer adoption and expansion of Zinier’s AI-driven field service automation platform, ISAC.

Zinier’s field service automation platform helps organisations work smarter — from the back office to the field — to solve problems quickly.

South Korean gaming company NPIXEL raises US$26M Series A

South Korean gaming company NPIXEL today announced that it has secured a US$26 million at a valuation of US$260 million, led by Saehan Venture Capital and Altos Ventures.

“This investment is meaningful in that NPIXEL was recognised by investors who have
handpicked unicorn startups and successful gaming companies in the earliest stages&quot,” said Bong-Gun Bae and Hyun-Ho Jung, Co-founders of NPIXEL. “We will focus on providing the best gaming experience to gamers all around the world, starting with GRAN SAGA.”

Founded in September 2017, NPIXEL has created GRAN SAGA, an MMORPG enchanted by the adventures of knights to save the kingdom and is set to be released in the first half of 2020.

The game is developed in a multi-platform that is not limited to just a single device but can be played across different types of devices including PCs, mobile devices and consoles.

AI and drone startup Clobotics bags US$10M from Tiger Investment to expand to Singapore [KrAsia]

Shanghai- and Seattle-headquartered computer vision technology company Clobotics has raised US$10 million in its Series pre-B+ round from Tiger Investment, 36Kr reported on Wednesday.

The new funds will be channelled toward research and development as well as the company’s expansion to Singapore. Clobotics closed its US$22 million pre-B round in August 2019 and scored US$21 million in Series A investment one year prior.

The company uses its fleet of drones to take precise photos for wind turbine blade safety inspections, sparing manual work and increasing efficiency by up to 10 times, according to its website. Clobotics’ clients include Europe-based GEV Wind Power and Shanghai Electric.

Betatron increases investment amount up to US$500K per startup [press release]

Betatron, a startup investment firm and accelerator programme based in Hong Kong, has announced it will be increasing the investment amount given to each startup up to US$500,000.

In addition, Betatron will be providing its startups with an investor roadshow across Asia and North America, including Demo Days in Hong Kong, Singapore and Silicon Valley in 2020.

The main focus of the Betatron programme is to help each startup raise the next round of funding and accelerate business growth. To date, Betatron has invested in 37 startups from around the world and brought them to Hong Kong for its programme.

Applications for cohort #6 close on 18th March 2020 with the four-month programme starting in Q2, 2020.

Startups don’t need to be in Hong Kong for the entire duration of the programme as it’s designed so they only need to be there for three two-week blocks.

Securemetric invests a 5 per cent stake in Indonesian digital startup [The Edge Markets]

Software company Securemetric has invested in a 5 per cent stake in Indonesian digital startup PrivyID for a cash consideration of 20.25 billion Indonesian rupiah (US$150,000).

The company signed a conditional share subscription agreement with PT Privy Identitas Digital today, it said in a statement.

PrivyID is Indonesia’s first non-government institution certified certificate authority (CA), as well as the first private company in Indonesia that was granted access to the National Identification database.

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Hospitality chain startup OYO confirms staff layoffs in India [ET Tech]

Indian hospitality chain OYO Hotels and Homes confirmed that it has laid off part of its Indian workforce. CEO Ritesh Agarwal stated “sustainable growth and profit issue” as the reason behind the decision.

It is estimated that 1,200 employees have been cut in India, in addition to 500 job losses in China, Bloomberg reported last week. The layoffs were detailed in an internal email by founder Ritesh Agarwal to employees on Monday morning, focussing primarily in mid-management, business development, sales and operations roles, and in select technology teams that have become “redundant”.

An article by ET further noted that a top company executive also shared that the intention is to bring the headcount down by another 20 per cent at least and launch another resizing exercise by the end of March.

“As a result, we are asking some of our impacted colleagues to move to a new career outside of Oyo. This has not been an easy decision for us,” said Agarwal.

“Every ‘Oyopreneur’ is important to Oyo and ensuring their well-being both during and after their tenure is our number one priority. I want to thank them for their efforts and apologise for the impact this is causing,” he added.

Also Read: Turkish pricing intelligence startup Prisync to double down on APAC growth initiatives with US$1M funding

Nikkei Asian Review states that Oyo’s losses have widened more than sixfold to US$336 million during the financial year ended March 2019, even as revenues rose over fourfold during the period, with the majority of the company’s expenses attributed to operational expenses. Oyo also faces complaints from a group of hotel operators in the southern city of Bengaluru that has turned into criminal charges on the startup for allegedly withholding money due to unfair fee increases.

Indian B2B agritech startup TechnifyBiz secures US$2M funding from Omnivore [YourStory]

India-based B2B agritech startup TechnifyBiz announces that it has raised US$2 million seed funding from Omnivore, Razorpay founders, the Insitor Impact Asia Fund, and others, YourStory has learned.

The company was founded in 2017 by IIT grads Akash Sharma and Abhishek Agarwal. The B2B agritech startup organises “the non-perishable food commodity market by improving farmers’ linkages with food processors and wholesale buyers”.

The startup’s current investors include angels R Narayan, Founder of Power2SME, and Rajneesh Gupta, Director at Aakash Namkeen (wholesaler of snacks and savouries) as well as agritech incubator Indigram Labs.

The platform currently offers 10 commodities: makhana, cashews, almonds, raisins, walnut, quinoa, chia, pasta, sunflower seed, and watermelon seeds.

Google acquires the second startup co-founded by Irish entrepreneur Mark Cummins [Business Insider]

Google announces that it has bought Dublin-based Pointy, a startup that allows people to find out what their local stores have in physical stock with a small, physical box that plugs into local retailers’ barcode scanners, tracks what they sell, and then displays what they have to potential customers looking up the business online.

Also Read: Why Kubia is not in a rush to apply for Singapore’s digital bank license

The startup is co-founded by Mark Cummins, making it the second company that Google acquires from Cummins, who was once rejected from a job at Google before going on to found his first startup Plink, and selling it to Google in 2010.

According to an article by Business Insider, the deal is expected to close in the coming weeks.

SEED Ventures obtains Capital Markets Services Licence, to provide Venture Capital fund management services [Press Release]

SEED Ventures (SV), a venture capital firm headquartered in Singapore, announces that it has been granted a Capital Markets Services licence by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

With the CMS licence, SV will be able to invest in startups on behalf of its investors via its Venture Capital Fund Management service.

Ian Gan, founder and Chief Executive Officer of SV, said: “This licence is a significant milestone for SV and further entrenches our role in Singapore as a seed-stage VC company. We are delighted to be one of the few VCs to receive approval from the MAS. The licence will enable us to expand our investor base by managing funds from accredited and institutional investors.”

Founded in 2013, SV is heavily involved in entrepreneurship activities in Statutory boards and Institutes of Higher Learning in Singapore such as National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore Management University (SMU) and Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR).
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Picture Credit: OYO

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Prisync, an Istanbul-based competitive pricing intelligence and dynamic pricing solutions startup, has secured US$1.1 million in seed funding to double down on its growth initiatives in the Asia Pacific region.

Collective Spark led the round, which also saw participation from German VC fund ESOR Investments.

The company will also use the capital to fuel its product development and grow its global customer base.

“In the last two years, we have seen great interest, especially in the booming Southeast Asian e-commerce market, namely Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia,” Burc Tanir, CEO and Co-founder of Prisync, said.

“We see a huge and growing customer base for numerous online sellers/merchants. Consumers here are price-sensitive, so pricing is a real competitive factor in the online retail market,” he added. “We plan to double down APAC-focused growth initiatives with this round of funding.”

Also Read: Will the new digital banks sound the death knell for traditional banks?

The APAC region constitutes nearly 15 per cent of Prisync’s global sales.

Prisync helps e-commerce companies of all sizes by automating their competitor price tracking and pricing optimisation processes. It currently serves hundreds of customers in more than 50 countries, claims Tanir.

According to the company, automated pricing technologies are still not widely used across the global e-commerce market, especially in the small and medium-sized businesses segment, which constitutes the target market segment of Prisync.

These companies either conduct such competitive pricing analysis and optimisation manually or don’t even bother allocating resources on that front. Prisync emphasises this market condition as a significant potential for Prisync’s global growth.

Last year, Prisync formed partnerships with two major e-commerce platforms Magento and Shopify.

In March, it acquired its Australia-based competitor Spotlite.

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Akseleran, the P2P lending platform based in Indonesia, announces that it has raised a US$8.6 million in Series A funding led by Beenext, as reported by Tech In Asia.

Joining the round are investors include Access Ventures, Agaeti Venture Capital, Ahabe Group, and Central Capital Ventura, the corporate venture capital arm of Bank BCA.

Akseleran states that it will use the new funds to focus on scaling up the team, technology, and penetrating the underserved Indonesian market.

“We will keep developing tailor-made loan products that suit the needs of SMEs. We want to open more access for everyone to lend to and support the SMEs and get a higher return of investment through a safe and efficient platform,” said Ivan Tambunan, the CEO and co-founder of Akseleran.

Also Read: Akseleran raises US$2.5M funding, will focus on securing OJK licence

Akseleran was first established in 2017 as the equity crowdfunding platform. It claims to have disbursed more than US$71.4 million worth of loans to over 2,000 SMEs.

It raised US$8.5 million in a Series A funding round September last year, but no further details were revealed until it received a license approval from the financial services authority of Indonesia, or known as Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) in December 2019 to provide lending services.

Throughout 2018, Akseleran had channelled a total of IDR210 billion (US$15 million) of loan. By the end of 2019, the company aims to channel up to IDR1.2 trillion (US$85 million).

At the moment the company owns four lending products for businesses: Invoice financing (which contributed to a total of 85 per cent of loan on the platform), inventory financing, capital expenditure, and online merchant financing.

As a P2P lending service, Akseleran claimed to have been able to curb non-performing loan (NPL) rate to 0.5 per cent. The company was able to achieve this number by focussing on mid-size businesses such as oil and gas, retail, and construction.

Also Read: Akseleran launches as Indonesia’s first equity crowdfunding platform, aims to bridge funding gap for SMEs and startups

Teruhide Sato, the managing partner of Beenext, further noted that the majority of SMEs in Indonesia are still underserved by conventional lending providers, excluded from the growth and its benefits without the access to the financial services.

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Image Credit: Akseleran

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In marketing, the power of influence knows no bounds. Having a celebrity put in a good word about your product or services is guaranteed to rake in sales regardless of the medium or the technology used.

Fast forward to 2018, social media has taken the power of influence into a whole new level. A quick search on your favourite search engine can help you find the right people who can bring your brand further out into your chosen demographic.

However, consumers have become smarter and more sceptical with marketing techniques to the point that they can instantly spot a fake endorser. Audiences now crave for a more intimate connection with the celebrities they look up to.

A study by Forbes showed that audience engagement slows down as soon as a media public figure reaches the 100,000 follower count.

This shows that people prefer to interact with someone who is more grounded and relatable instead of with a public figure who wouldn’t have time to connect personally to a massive crowd of followers.

Also Read: What makes Singapore the marketing hub of Southeast Asia

Nevertheless, influencer marketing takes a huge chunk of a company’s marketing budget because it is a genuine and non-intrusive way of connecting with consumers.

Huge brands have continuously recognised the importance of influencer marketing as 2017 showed a rise in the use of social media influencers by as much as 198 per cent. Getting endorsed by the right endorser would provide a company with a powerful, direct line to their target consumers. Here are some points on why you should still include influencer marketing in your 2018 marketing plans.

Help your brand reach out to your target audience

With influencer marketing, there would be no need to set aside an additional budget to identify your core audience. As long as you choose the right influencer who has already nurtured your target audience on social media, your brand automatically gets a front-row seat to the followers who are already interested in your niche market.

This also takes advantage of the fact that audiences spend a lot of time on social media. If an influencer features your product in one of his social platforms, it creates an instant connection with audiences on sites where the influencer spends the most time on.

Enhances brand awareness

Influencer marketing can exponentially expand your reach and enhance your brand positioning online. Influencers often act as the driving force behind movements and groundbreaking ideas. A mere mention by a social media influencer can expose your brand to new users and even incorporate your brand into hot trends.

Also Read: Influencer marketing is a tricky, sticky situation for small businesses

Most influencers possess the creativity to weave a story into your brand and ultimately introduces your identity and the solutions you offer. Hiring a trendsetting influencer to promote your brand can even show that your company is an innovative leader.

Provides value to your brand and influences purchasing decisions

Influencer marketing embraces the concept of delivering content that educates, inspires, and provides solutions. This aligns with the values of social media influencers whose goals are to provide content that is valuable to their audiences, influencers are already in tune with the needs of their audiences and they want to ensure that their create content that attracts users to their channels.

Online influencers can also drive your sales since consumers

Constantly look up to influencers for advice on what products and services to purchase. A study showed that roughly 40 per cent of respondents purchase a product after they found out that a social media influencer uses it.

Furthermore, 85 per cent of millennials discover new products through social media. Influence marketing is a guaranteed method that drives sales and return of investment.

Builds consumer trust

People respect the content and recommendation of social media influencers and this sense of connection and trust can also affect your branding strategy. Influencers spent years building relationships and credibility with their fans.

Sharing in an influencer’s content can gain the attention of your target audience and put your brand in front of an actively engaging crowd of potential customers.

Influencers are also regarded as experts by their legion of followers. Once a brand is mentioned by an influencer, it creates instant credibility for the company and promotes trustworthiness.

This even becomes more powerful in niche markets where an industry expert is looked up as an authoritative figure. Once an influencer shares your content, it creates powerful brand recognition.

Fills in loopholes in your content strategy

Influencers can improve your marketing strategy and fill in the gaps in your own content. Running out of ideas to put out on your own social media platforms? Then let a social media influencer do that for you.

In fact, working with a number of influencers will guarantee that you’ll never run out of quality content to publish and push to your audience. You reach out to several social media influencers who can create engaging content for you.

Also Read: The reality of influencer marketing in the age of digital content

Influence marketing can also cut through advertising blindness: the tendency of online users to ignore banner ads on websites and social media. Banner ads used to be the prime method of advertising on the internet but several softwares and browsers have been developed to stop them, such as anti-pop-up features.

Influencer marketing creates an opportunity to cut through this ad blindness and provide a non-intrusive way of advertising – by placing your brand in natural, native content.

Builds a winning partnership and a valuable marketing network

Connecting with an influencer doesn’t end with just the content sharing. It can open opportunities for live events and joint-projects that a social media influencer may concoct in the future. Influence marketing can create a long term marketing strategy for any brand and will even grow together with an influencer’s reach.

Take note that content made by influencers have unlimited sharing potential. Unlike a paid advertisement that has a limited reach and timeframe, shareable content provided by an influencer can attract attention repeatedly especially if it goes viral. Imagine such wide and permanent audience reach at a lower cost compared to traditional marketing campaigns.

Influencer marketing is stronger than ever

It has been almost a decade since social media sites took over and it has changed the online marketing landscape for the better. Influence marketing, no matter what form it takes, remains a relevant and important strategy in building brand recognition and raising sales.

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Singapore-based online real estate co-investment platform RealVantage has been officially launched. The platform was founded by a team with institutional investment experience to bring accredited investors offshore to be able to acquire, manage, and optimise offshore real estate portfolios.

It seeks to provide access to investment opportunities across various real estate classes and investment strategies that were previously limited to larger, institutional investors. It targets accredited investors and high net worth individuals (HNWIs) to let them get their hands on real estate opportunities in different countries, sectors, and investment spectrums.

Using the platform, investors will be able to select amongst multiple options, such as a stable income-producing office in the UK, a townhouse development project in Australia, or a multifamily asset repositioning project in the USA.

RealVantage was founded by Keith Ong and Mao Ching Foo. Both saw the synergies in bringing together their complementary expertise in real estate and technology as they are veterans in real estate fund management, technology, and data science. Ong and Foo technology to aggregate investors to access larger deals, and deliver investment decision making via data-driven insights.

Keith Ong, CEO, and Co-Founder of RealVantage, said, “We’ve always felt there was a gap in offshore real estate investment opportunities for individual investors; most investors will just buy residential units when they venture overseas. There is actually a myriad of investment opportunities that provide good risk-adjusted returns in different property sectors and investment modes.”

Also Read: Why proptech and real estate tech will be important in Asia

“With RealVantage, investors are allowed to customise their own portfolio of properties according to their individual risk appetites. Our goal is to ultimately unlock a world of institutional real estate investing for individual investors,” Ong added.

Ong has over 20 years in real estate fund management and has spent the bulk of his career at ARA Asset Management, one of the largest Private Equity Real Estate firms in the Asia Pacific, Foo, Co-Founder and CTO of RealVantage, was previously the CTO of Funding Societies, one of the largest P2P crowdfunding lending platforms in the region.

RealVantage said it offers “well-qualified and experienced real estate asset managers quantitative trading and private equity understanding” to maximise investment returns by actively managing cross-border property investments exceeding US$10 billion and has managed assets in excess of US$20 billion across different geographies.

The team applies international practices across the entire investment process, ranging from research, deal sourcing and assessment, as well as asset management, screening and identifying opportunities that fit investment criteria by employing proprietary AI engines to complement their deal origination and evaluation processes.

The deals are subsequently vetted by its internal investment committee made up of industry veterans comprising Anthony Ang, CEO of Sasseur REIT and the former CEO of Fortune REIT, and Richard Tan, an independent real estate advisor and former CFO of Suntec REIT.

Also Read: Proptech is changing the face of real estate in Asia Pacific

Approved deals then are put together into an investment memorandum detailing investment strategy, financial analysis, investment period, and deal terms. These are uploaded onto the platform and made available for investors in guaranteed transparency and disclosure, keeping investors fully appraised of their investments through regular updates on RealVantage’s digital platform, from co-investment until divestment.

RealVantage closed a funding round with angel investors last year. The company also claims to have a presence in Indonesia, with 30 per cent of their total number of investors coming from the country, while the other 70 per cent of investors concentrated in Singapore.

In 2020, RealVantage plans to widen its investor base in Singapore and Indonesia. The platform is also looking to expand its investment opportunities beyond the UK and Australia markets.
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Thailand-based aCommerce, an e-commerce enabler that helps global clients sell their products in the Southeast Asian markets, has raised US$15 million from Indies Capital Partners.

This round comes almost six months after it secured a US$10 million round from existing shareholders including KKR & Co. in July 2019.

The new funds will be used to drive ‘aCommerce 2.0’, which, according to the company, is an initiative to deliver greater value to enterprise brand client. “We are now fully-funded to continue executing on our ‘2.0 strategy’ to reach group profitability and become cash-flow positive in 2020,” said Paul Srivorakul, Co-founder of aCommerce. 

A portion of the capital will also be used to better support the company’s already existing global clients (such as Samsung, Unilever, Nestlé, L’Oréal, Philips, Adidas, and Mars), recruit, and develop a better workforce, focus on core markets and achieve profitability.

aCommerce has also revealed its plans to launch an IPO, says a TechInAsia report.

Founded in June 2013, aCommerce focusses on providing e-commerce technologies and solutions. Its services include performance marketing, channel management, webstore design and operations, content production, order fulfilment and warehousing, delivery and logistics and localised customer care.

Also Read: eCommerce: Revitalising conventional forms of trade in Malaysia

Indes Capital is an asset manager focusing on private credit and equity in Southeast Asia and has invested more than US$1 billion across multiple strategies on behalf of institutional and private investors.

“We appreciate that aCommerce is putting itself ahead of the curve in terms of driving its business to cash flow generation, and only pursuing economically sustainable growth. It is a rare combination of a technology company of scale in Southeast Asia on the path to profitability, whilst still exhibiting strong growth prospects,” said Harold Ong, Managing Director of Indies Capital Partners.

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Image Credit: aCommerce

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The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has received a total of 21 applications for the five new digital bank licences it announced last year, as on December 31, 2019 (last date). The government will allow only up to five digital banks in the country — two digital full-banks (DFBs) and three digital wholesale banks (DWBs).

The new digital bank licences will allow entities, including non-bank players, to conduct digital banking businesses in Singapore. These are in addition to any digital banks that Singapore banking groups may already establish under MAS’s existing internet banking framework.

Of the 21 applications the market regulator has received, seven are for the digital full bank (DFB) and 14 for the digital wholesale bank (DWB) licences.

The MAS expects to announce the successful applicants in mid-2020.

Also Read: Digital banking in Asia Pacific: What we can expect to happen in 2020

The DFB licence will allow for the consortiums to lend money to other companies and individuals, as well as serve retail customers. DFB can take deposits from and provide banking services to retail and non-retail customer segments. Foreign companies are eligible if they form a joint venture with a Singapore company and the JV meets the headquarter and control requirements.

As for DWBs, they are only allowed to serve SMEs and other non-retail segments. DWBs will be allowed to take deposits from and provide banking services to SMEs and other non-retail customer segments. Both local and foreign companies can apply for this.

In order to successfully obtain a digital bank license, besides compliance with regulatory requirements, technical capability and a sustainable business model, an applicant needs to demonstrate how they can meet the objectives from this initiative as set out by the MAS, including deeper financial inclusion.

Regulatory compliance requires a substantial amount of investment in people and technology. Reporting at every step of the way may not be built into the DNA of non-financial institutional aspirants.

The MAS expects that “the entry of new digital players will add diversity and strengthen Singapore’s banking system in the digital economy of the future. With innovative business models and strong digital capabilities, these players can cater to under-served segments of the market.”

Eligible applicants will be assessed for the following:

The value proposition of the applicant’s business model, incorporating the innovative use of technology to serve customer needs and reach under-served segments of the Singapore market that differentiates it from existing banks. MAS will also consider the ability of the applicant to implement the proposal.

Ability to manage a prudent and sustainable digital banking business, including the level of understanding of key risks in the banking business, and strength of its regulatory compliance and risk management plans. The MAS will also consider the reputation, track record, financial strength and commitment of the applicant’s shareholders.

Growth prospects and other contributions to Singapore’s financial centre, such as the jobs it will be bringing to Singapore, its commitment to develop the skills of the local workforce, the capabilities (including technology) it will be locating in Singapore, the headquarter functions it will be anchoring here as well as its regional expansion plans.

Who are the applicants?

Although the MAS has received 21 applications for the digital bank licence, only a few applicants chose to make it public.

Here is the list of companies/consortiums which announced their applications:

Grab and Singtel; Razer Youth Bank; Beyond Consortium; Ant Financial; iFast Corporation; Hande and Yillion; Sheng Ye Capital, Phillip Capital and Advance.AI; AMTD, Xiaomi Finance, SP Group and Funding Societies; Sea Group; and Enigma Group.

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Image Credit: 123rf Stock Photos

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Enigma Group, a financial services company that specialises in analytical recruitment and executive search in the US, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, today announced that it has led a consortium comprising Singapore-based Qrypt Technologies, 2359 Media and Blockchain Worx to apply for a digital bank licence.

The consortium has submitted an application to the Monetary Authority of Singapore for a Digital Full Bank license that would allow it to provide a range of financial services and take deposits from retail and non-retail customers.

The Singapore-headquartered group is also said to plan to leverage deep expertise across financial services, experience from its multiple existing licensed financial services operations in Europe, along with emerging technologies to create financial products for the target segments.

“The ability to combine our capabilities to create a sustainable and profitable digital banking business is at the core of our strategy,” said Samuel Heng, the designated Chairman of the group.

“We have assembled a consortium that includes firms led by seasoned executives and have a breadth of expertise that spans financial services, technology operations and digital transformation,” added Malcolm Tan, Founder of Qrypt Technologies and the Gravitas Group.

According to a statement, the proposed digital bank will focus on the underbanked small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector as well as the fast-evolving digital workforce.

In a study conducted by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, over 70 per cent of the adult population in Southeast Asia is either ‘underbanked’ or ‘unbanked’.

Additionally, about 80 per cent of the surveyed SMEs state the need to borrow but lack access to affordable credit despite the region’s high smartphone penetration rate.

Also Read: Embracing Singapore’s digital bank shake up in 2019 and its consequences

Enigma Group has recently signed up to acquire ownership of a UK-based challenger-bank together with its various group companies. It is separately also involved in a Swiss Wealth Management business.

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