News

Malaysia’s SME Corp allocates $1.27M to Bumiputera youth entrepreneurs

SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp. Malaysia), an agency under the Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development (MECD) and Funding Societies, an unified SME digital finance platform in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, have allocated an initial fund of MYR 6 million ($1.27 milion) for Bumiputera youth entrepreneurs.

Malaysia’s JCorp invests $1.74 million into Singapore-based agritech firm Archisen

Malaysia-based state investment firm Johor Corporation (JCorp) Group will invest MYR 8.2 million ($1.74 million) into Singapore-based agritech firm Archisen Pte Ltd. FarmByte, a digital-first agrofood company within the JCorp, has signed a heads of agreement (HOA) with Archisen, proposing the FarmByte investment into Archisen and the establishment of an…

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UNDP, MAS and partners launch Universal Trusted Credentials initiative for MSME financing

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Bank of Ghana (BoG), Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) and the SME Finance Forum announced Tuesday the launch of an open global initiative – Universal Trusted Credentials (UTC) – to improve micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) access to…

Grab-backed GXBank unveils beta bank app

GX Bank Berhad (GXBank), the Grab-backed Malaysian digital bank, is officially rolling out its beta app to selected 20,000 Malaysians users effective November 14, 2023. This comes after successfully testing the beta app amongst employees of the bank and partners.

Dubai launches $136M venture capital fund designed to finance technology startups

The Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ) has announced the launch of a venture capital (VC) fund worth $136 million. The fund is designed to finance technology startups and supports the economic objectives outlined in the Dubai Economic Agenda, D33 by promoting the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in various emerging sectors.

Singapore’s CapitaLand India Trust secures $157M to develop Navi Mumbai data center

Singapore's CapitaLand India Trust (CLINT) has secured a five-year construction loan of INR13 billion ($157 million) from J.P. Morgan India to finance phase 1 development of its data center in Navi Mumbai. Securing this onshore loan in India reflects CLINT’s disciplined capital management through a diversification of its funding sources.

AIZEN Global and Grab forge partnership in mobility finance

AIZEN Global, a South Korea-based artificial intelligence (AI)-powered financial services, has announced a strategic partnership agreement with Grab, Southeast Asia's leading super app. This dynamic collaboration is set to revolutionize the emerging realm of e-mobility finance, aligning with Grab's ambitious plans to introduce approximately 50,000 electric…

Grab delivers first adjusted profitable quarter as topline continues to grow

Southeast Asia superapp Grab said Thursday it has delivered the first adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation (EBITDA) profitable quarter as topline continues to grow. The group's adjusted EBITDA turned positive for the first time at $29 million for the third quarter, an improvement of $190 million compared to adjusted losses before interest,…

American Express expands Singapore Decision Science Center of Excellence

American Express has on Thursday announced it is deepening its investment in artificial intelligence (AI) with the expansion of the Singapore Decision Science Center of Excellence (CoE). The CoE will now extend beyond credit decisioning and fraud prevention use cases to focus on data science applications in the areas of marketing and servicing model…

Airwallex sees strong growth momentum in Singapore, reports 13 times of revenue growth

Global payment firm Airwallex has seen strong growth momentum in Singapore as businesses recovered from the pandemic and the world reopened. In the first half of 2023, Airwallex Singapore saw 13 times of growth (1,213 percent) in year-on-year revenue and more than 11 times of growth (1,015 percent) in total transaction volume.