TNGlobal Q&A and Interviews

Ripple’s Brooks Entwistle on the promising future of digital payments [Q&A]

An emerging preference for digital payments naturally leads to consumers increasingly demanding faster and more affordable payment options--which in turn is spurring innovation among fintech startups and traditional financial institutions alike.

How Carsome became Malaysia’s largest tech unicorn – with a little help from a friend

Gobi Partners’ continued faith and multiple investments into Carsome paved the way for the e-commerce platform to dominate Southeast Asia’s used car scene, en route to becoming Malaysia’s first and largest unicorn.

Funding, talent & decision-making are the biggest challenges for innovators, says SoftBank Ventures Asia’s JP Lee [Q&A]

In this TechNode Global Q&A with JP Lee, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of SBVA, he discusses the trends shaping innovation in the region, as well as the challenges faced by innovators, including talent, resources, and decision-making. He believes that there is a big opportunity for innovators to deliver value to both consumer and enterprise…

Carsome

Carsome spots a gap in auto-financing for graduates, aims to introduce similar product in Indonesia, Thailand after Malaysia

Carsome plans to introduce auto-financing for graduates in Indonesia and Thailand, as it targets a loan size of at least MYR 100M ($24.17M) for its auto-financing business in 2022.

Targeted e-commerce should be a discovery-led experience, says edamama’s Bela Gupta D’Souza [Q&A]

Decisions on what products to buy or services to avail of as parents are often influenced by research, social proofing, and seeking out detailed reviews. We, therefore, think that shopping increasingly needs to be a discovery-led experience instead of a search-driven process. 

For Kickstart Ventures, investment strategies revolve around the digital ‘new consumer’ [Q&A with Minette Navarrete]

Our investment strategy revolves around today’s new customer, who might be the digital consumer or the digital company. They might be digital natives, or they could be newly digital. In any case, technology plays a bigger, more important, more fundamental role in their daily lives today.

The future of MSME financing will be collaborative, says IFS Capital’s Renchun Zeng [Q&A]

The future of SME financing will be increasingly tech-driven, inclusive, and accessible. Innovative financial solutions by traditional financial institutions and fintech firms will emerge.

SGX-listed iFAST Corp to continue digital bank ambition in Malaysia [Q&A]

It will target B40 segment while eyeing low-cost deposits globally.

Chicago-based foodtech Nature’s Fynd is out to capture APAC’s slice of the alt-protein pie [Q&A]

Fresh off a US$350 million Series C round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, Chicago-based fungi protein startup Nature’s Fynd is bypassing typical alt-protein markets in Europe to expand across Asia Pacific aggressively in 2022. Nature’s Fynd Chief Marketing Officer Karuna Rawal tells TechNode Global why.