Category: Banking

DBS, Woh Hup named Kincentric Best Employers in Singapore for 2021

DBS and Woh Hup (Private) Limited have emerged as Singapore’s Best Employers in 2021, according to Kincentric’s premium assessment that identifies organisations who demonstrate outstanding people practices and workplace excellence.

While DBS has been named Kincentric Best Employer for the sixth time in Singapore and across Asia Pacific, home-grown construction firm, Woh Hup (Private) Limited has been recognised for the first time. These two companies are particularly leading the way by creating engaging environments fostering organisational agility and building engaging leaders.

Companies were evaluated against four research-based elements that are key to accelerating success: Employee Engagement, Organisational Agility, Talent Focus and Engaging Leadership. Kincentric identifies Best Employers that are in the Top Quartile and research shows that excelling across these four areas leads to better business results. Across each of the four parameters, the difference between the Top Quartile and their peers was at least 10 percentage points or more.

Engaging Leadership, Agility & Talent Focus Trump

Engaging Leadership, Organisational Agility and Talent Focus feature as the key factors that have enabled Singapore’s Best Employers to do exceptionally well. According to Kincentric’s insights, these Top Quartile companies are 10%* stronger on Engaging Leadership scores, 12%* better on Organisational Agility and 11%* committed on Talent Focus. This clearly demonstrates decisive and agile people centric business decisions that organisations have had to take through the pandemic.

Andrew How, Market Leader, Kincentric Singapore, said, “The last two years have been like no other and this pandemic has significantly changed the nature of work. Kincentric Best Employers distinguish themselves based on how well they rise to these challenges and provide a first-class employee experience to their people along the way. The strength of their people practices is what positions Kincentric Best Employers to be able to meet the ever-changing nature of work and evolving employees’ aspirations.”

Special Recognition for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I)

For the first time, Kincentric introduced a Special Recognition Award for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion best practices. DBS, Atkins Design Engineering Consultants Pte Ltd (a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group) and MSD International GmbH (Singapore Branch) have been recognised in this category for their development of diverse, equitable and inclusive work cultures, and have created a safe and inclusive space for their employees.

When evaluated, these organisations were found to have exemplified a robust and formal organisational approach towards DE&I, and were able to build an alignment between Employees, Managers and Leaders.

Special Recognition for Social Service Sector

To highlight the best people centric organisations in this sector, the Kincentric Best Employers 2021 assessment has provided a Special Recognition to:

AMP Singapore, Halogen Foundation (Singapore), Lutheran Community Care Services Ltd and TOUCH Community Services Ltd, for their contributions to the Social Service Sector this year. The assessment was based on a methodology to understand how well these firms engaged with their employees and demonstrated Best Employers’ attributes. To qualify, Employee Engagement scores had to be on par or higher than those belonging in the Top Quartile.

Trends from 2021 assessment

– The current pandemic has accelerated the megatrends of digitalisation and fundamentally
shifted how organisations work. The 2021 employee engagement data from Singapore validates that Top Quartile companies tend to fare better in Change Management (12%*) and their Senior Leadership have a much higher standing (17%*).
– In addressing more complex business issues arising from greater levels of ambiguity and uncertainty, Top Quartile companies put in place interventions to establish a better brand in the community (14%*), practical learning programs (13%*), create psychological safety for their employees (13%*), provide better workplace flexibility (12%*) and managers are effective at developing a positive team atmosphere (11%*).
– Kincentric has also found that Top Quartile companies do better in engaging the younger generations, notably the Geriatric Millennials (Age 35 to 44) (14%*) and Gen Z (12%*).
Kincentric’s global research has also shown that given the present challenges around talent retention, employees who do not see good career opportunities or agree with their organisation’s response to their well-being are four times more likely to leave.

Congratulating this year’s Kincentric Best Employers, Mr. Andrew How, said, “These are challenging times. Leading organisations have demonstrated agility to respond effectively to disruptions while being connected to the needs of their employees. Look around your organisation today and you’ll observe ways of working that are quite different to only a few years ago. This ability to stay agile to meet the demands of external customers and internal staff is a defining characteristic of Kincentric Best Employers.”

* Indicates % higher than their peers

Southeast Asia Cybersecurity Company, Horangi, Among First in Asia to Attain SOC 2 Type II Certification, Reaffirms Commitment towards SaaS Security Standards and Delivering Secure Data Management for Cloud-first Organisations

  • The SOC 2 compliance framework is internationally recognised as the gold standard for security compliance for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies, and reaffirms Horangi’s commitment to meeting trust services criteria in information and data security
  • Horangi’s flagship cloud security solution, Warden, currently includes international and APAC-focused compliance automation that support standards such as ISO, SOC 2, CIS, MAS TRM, BNM-RMiT, OJK, and APRA. Support for upcoming standards such as the PDPA in Thailand will be incorporated on a regular basis

Horangi, a Singapore-headquartered cybersecurity company which provides security solutions optimised for cloud-based organisations across Southeast Asia, today announced it had successfully achieved SOC 2 Type II Compliance and Certification, making it one of the first cybersecurity companies in Asia to do so. This is a testament to Horangi’s ongoing dedication to advancing the maturity of its security program, and reaffirms its ongoing commitment to meeting trust services criteria in information and data security.

Developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the SOC 2 compliance framework is internationally recognised as the gold standard for security compliance for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies. It requires companies to establish and follow strict information security policies and procedures encompassing the security, availability, and confidentiality of customer data. Horangi invested efforts into identifying shortfalls and introducing fundamental changes at the company to strengthen necessary security controls.

Certification involves a technical auditing process that validates internal control policies and practices, ensuring that the organisation is operating in accordance with SOC 2 standards. Organisations will be required to demonstrate the effectiveness of their information security control environment for an extended period of in the range of 3 to 12 months. Coalfire, who conducted the audit over a 4-month review period for security and confidentiality criteria, concluded that Horangi has upheld the essential criteria around secure data management for its cloud security products and services.

The newly acquired SOC 2 certification further bolsters Horangi’s CREST-accredited cybersecurity consulting services and Gartner-recognised Warden cloud security platform after the company was inducted into programs by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) earlier in the year.

Paul Hadjy, CEO and Co-founder, Horangi, said: ‘Attaining the SOC 2 Type II certification demonstrates Horangi’s dedication to meeting the most rigorous security and confidentiality standards at a time where data breaches and misuse are prevalent. We developed more than twenty policies and implemented new procedures and tools, enhancing our monitoring and security management capabilities according to the stringent prerequisites of the SOC 2 certification. It has been an intense but fruitful year-long endeavour for the Horangi team, and we remain committed to enhancing our services in alignment with evolving industry requirements.”

Horangi leveraged its flagship cloud security platform, Warden, to manage configurations, Identity and Access Management (IAM), and potential vulnerabilities for deployment of these new policies and procedures. This was streamlined by the use of JumpCloud for onboarding, offboarding, access management and monitoring.

“The best practices are built into our daily operations, throughout every team from the technical team to people operations, enabling us to achieve optimal security outcomes for organisations we serve. Constant innovation in alignment with best-in-class practices has been a key facet of our growth strategy, and will continue to drive our success as a cloud security leader in Asia,” added Hadjy.

Horangi Warden currently includes APAC-focused compliance automation that supports standards such as MAS TRM, BNM-RMiT, OJK, and APRA. Support for upcoming standards such as the PDPA in Thailand will be incorporated on a regular basis. Horangi also obtained the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Security Competency and Public Sector Competency earlier in 2021, positioning it well to maintain its leading market position and magnifying the effectiveness of its solutions in a rapidly digitalising economy.

About Horangi
Horangi is a leading cybersecurity company founded by ex Palantir Technologies engineers and is headquartered in Singapore. Horangi’s best-in-class Warden cloud security platform protects organizations in the public cloud, complemented by an elite team of cybersecurity experts providing CREST-accredited offensive and strategic cybersecurity services to customers across the world. For more information, visit https://www.horangi.com/.

Media Contact
KeKomunikation for Horangi
Email: Horangi@KeKomunikation.com
Phone: +65 6303 0567

Singapore P2P Lender BRDGE: Flexible financing key to SME survival during pandemic-driven business uncertainty; launches F&B loans package and SME digitalisation platform

  • BRDGE funded more than S$ 11m in loans to 46 Singapore SMEs since April 2020; across more industries as compared to a similar period pre-pandemic
  • Average loan size today is S$352,000 compared to S$836,000 pre-pandemic, a decrease of 58% alluding to focus on cashflow for rising costs around rent and labour instead of growth
  • In response to uncertainty around dining-in, BRDGE launches new F&B loans packaged with interest rates from less than as 1% per month for between three to six months, with a lowered credit assessment criteria matched to changing dining in rules in the past three to six months
  • Part of BRDGE’s focus on Singapore SME Survival during COVID-19, together with efforts around digitalisation through its e-commerce mobile app B Mart

BRDGE Technology (BRDGE), an MAS licensed Peer-to-Peer lending platform launched in 2014, today announced the launch of a food and beverage (F&B) financing package specially catered to support Singapore’s Food and Beverage (F&B) Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the current pandemic-driven uncertainty around dining-in. The loans package, with affordable interest rates from less than 1% per month and a short tenure of three-to-six-months, is specially designed to help establishments survive and potentially thrive during this period when cashflow is of importance for salaries and rentals.

One unique aspect of the F&B BRDGE loan is the credit assessment process, which takes the challenging business landscape into account with a lowered and targeted criteria on credit assessment: BRDGE will assess only the latest three-to-six months of the SME’s recent cashflow, bank statements and bank balance, matched against the changing dining-in rules, to identify F&B businesses which are able to survive and thrive.

BRDGE offers funding support for SMEs that are non-bankable or unable to secure a loan from traditional financial institutions. Most of the time it is due to a less than two-year track record or small annual revenues, or have maxed their credit facilities or who require a Bridging Loan. BRDGE then carries out an assessment and matches SMEs with potential investors.

Mr Kevin Wong, CEO, BRDGE Technology, said, “The government has been extremely supportive with the various grants and packages for businesses and their employees in Singapore since the start of the pandemic, and the community has also continued their support to Singapore SMEs. However, with the recently announced extension of the stabilisation phase, Singapore businesses, specifically F&B establishments which depend very much on dining-in for their revenues, continue to be pressured by thinner margins, tight cashflow, and the rising cost of rent and labour. With group sizes for dining-in having been adjusted more than 10 times since April 2020, F&B businesses are faced with continued uncertainty and many are on the brink of survival. This loan package is designed to help them survive and potentially thrive in the short term, with a more relevant assessment process grounded in the very different business reality today.”

Cashflow a priority for SMEs during COVID-19
Since the start of the pandemic in April 2020 till today, BRDGE has funded more than 46 SMEs with more than S$ 11m in loans. As compared to a similar period pre-pandemic (April 2019 to April 2020), there has been a distinct reduction of 58% to the average loan size per borrower from S$352,000 vs S$836,000, alluding to a shift in borrowing for growth pre-pandemic, to survival during the pandemic with cash used to maintain operational costs.

More SMEs has also requested for funding since April 2020, at 46 against 17 pre-pandemic, with companies from industries such as Arts, Entertainment and Recreation, Health and Medical, Marine and Shipping, and Beauty and Wellness, requesting for loans.

Kevin added, “As the pandemic continues, more and more businesses are facing problems maintaining cashflow. We’re also seeing a fundamental shift in the reasons for getting loans. Where previously companies were discussing funding to help them grow or expand, today we are speaking to business owners who are concerned about surviving to the next month. The government and consumers are surely doing their part to help businesses survive, but every little bit helps and this relook at how we assess loans is one part of our commitment to the Singapore business community.”

As part of its efforts to tide SMEs through this challenging period, BRDGE also recently started developing B Mart, a new e-commerce mobile app that is designed to help SMEs in Singapore digitalise and find new customers online. On the platform now are more than 7 businesses with over 500 SKUs representing B2B industries such as Creative and Marketing and B2C businesses such as Food & Beverages, Beauty & Health, Fashion, etc. BRDGE plans to increase this to 2,000 SKUs by the end of the year, with all 237 BRDGE’s SME borrowers since 2014 being able to tap on this platform. All applicants of today’s F&B BRDGE loans can have access to the platform and will be able to tap on the BRDGE online delivery app at a fixed and competitive 5% commission rate to help lower operational costs.

F&B businesses can apply for the BRDGE F&B loan via the BRDGE website: https://register.brdge.tech/fandb-smes, while investors who are seeking to support local businesses can find out more here https://register.brdge.tech/fandb-investor or register themselves on the BRDGE website.

SME owners who are interested in listing their products on the B Mart app to grow their customer base and business can get in touch with BRDGE directly at admin@bmart.sg.

About BRDGE Technology
BRDGE Technology is an MAS licensed P2P lending platform with a Capital Market Service license (CMS 100642). Founded in 2014, it is among the pioneer batch of homegrown P2P lending platforms and is the highest-rated crowdfunding platform on Seedly. Till date, BRDGE has crowdfunded a total of S$72,022,115 and has a community size of over 17,000 investors and SMEs. https://www.brdge.tech/

FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES
PRecious Communications for BRDGE
Martin Lim, BRDGE@preciouscomms.com

FACTSHEET
Address: 57 Mohamed Sultan Rd #03-05 Sultan-Link, Singapore 238997
Tel: 6916 1799
Email: hellosg@brdge.tech
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Indonesia to Witness the Largest BFSI Gathering at World Financial Innovation Series (WFIS 2021)

With an aim to support Indonesia and its Financial Services Authority (OJK) in acknowledging the latest BFSI innovations, while also addressing the lucrative opportunities presented by its growing digital economy, Tradepass is back in Indonesia with its 8th Edition of World Financial Innovation Series (WFIS 2021) – INDONESIA, scheduled to take place virtually on 1-2 December.

Coupa Software, SmartMessage, CREALOGIX, AppsFlyer, GitLab, Freshworks, Contentsquare, Snowflake and Thought Machine, have taken the initiative to lead the conference that will also host 1000+ technology and business heads from 100+ leading Banks, Insurance & Micro-Finance institutions across Indonesia to network and explore a wide range of cutting-edge solutions for the BFSI sector.

When asked about their opinion regarding the WFIS platform and how they will take advantage of it, Mr. Kerim Alain Bertrand (CSO Global, SmartMessage) stated, “World Financial Innovation Series 2021 – Indonesia will provide a great knowledge sharing and networking base for us as SmartMessage. We are quite excited with the opportunity to contribute and present various use-cases on how companies confidently scale in real-time their digital communications over millions of customers and create seamless experiences thanks to our SmartMessage Omni-channel Marketing Automation platform.”

The conference also aims to cover the most pressing topics from the industry including, -Reinventing the FSI ecosystem using Dynamic Automated Systems”, “How are new-age banks using Big Data”, “How Open Banking will power the next wave of fintech innovation”, “Neo-banks”, ‘Banking-as-a-service (BaaS)’, ‘Powering financial services with cloud’ and many others.

Some of the confirmed speakers from the conference include: Teguh Aria Djana, CEO, PT. Asuransi Simas Insurtech; Gilbert Naibaho, COO, Lippo Insurance; Michel Hamilton, Chief Strategy Transformation & Digital Officer, Maybank Indonesia; Rachmajanto Subroto, General Manager of IT, PT Sompo Insurance Indonesia; Sonny Supriyadi, SVP – Head Pricing & Data Analytics, Maybank Indonesia; Samiha Alam, Head Agency Partnerships, AppsFlyer; Benny Jioe, Head of Digital Transformation, Zurich Insurance and others.

Speaking on the subject, Mr. Karsten Kemna, Managing Director APAC, CREALOGIX shared, “Being at the forefront of developing new-age fintech solutions for the banks to have a seamless digital transition, WFIS 2021 – Indonesia has the right congregation for us to demonstrate our capabilities.”

Organizer and CEO of Tradepass, Sudhir Jena, expressed “In the wake of Indonesia’s huge unbanked population, digitized financial services play a crucial role in not just increasing bank account ownership but also providing the millions of unbanked Indonesians with a better chance at wealth management. In that light, World Financial Innovation Series 2021 (WFIS 2021) – INDONESIA is just the event the country needs to promote the new-age digital innovations in the BFSI sector.”

For more information about the summit, log on to https://indonesia.worldfis.com/
Aritrika Chakraborty
Tradepass
aritrikac@tradepassglobal.com
+91 8061664401

The fifth global edition of World CX Summit – FSI hosted by Trescon brought endless possibilities for CX & CEM in FSI

As a part of the world tour, the ASEAN edition of World CX Summit – FSI gathered pre-qualified CX leaders, Marketers & FSI experts virtually on 21 October 2021; to discuss how the latest technologies and customer insights can be combined to change CX as we know it.

The fifth global edition featured keynotes, panel discussions, tech talks, private consultation rooms, private networking rooms, and more on Vmeets – a virtual events platform. CX leaders and enthusiasts had engaging sessions with speakers in Q&A sessions and emphasized the changing dynamics of customer experience across the globe.

The summit presented an impressive line-up of speakers including:
– Anthony Rogalski, Solutions Consultant, UserTesting
– Landon Barnes, Principal Solutions Consultant, UserTesting
– Gavin Neil Olsen, Regional Manager, FSI, Sitecore
– Mike Plimsoll, Snr. Director, Industry Strategy & Marketing, Sitecore
– Allan Tumbaga, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Marketing Officer, Pru Life UK
– Sourabh Chitrachar, Regional VP- IT Strategy & Transformation, Liberty Mutual Insurance
– Rachel Chen, Chief Digital Officer, Aviva Singlife
– Mohd Afdhal Bin Mohd Nayan, Chief Transformation Officer, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
– Chatrudee Ngamvalairatt, EVP, Customer Experience Management, Bank Of Ayudhya (Krungsri Bank)
– Tomasz Kurczyk, Chief Digital and Transformation Officer, AXA Insurance
– Mohamed Keraine, Head of Retail, Philippines & Head of Retail Development Asia, ING
– Mujtanibul Ahmed Sakib, Division Customer Experience Director, Wing Bank
– Jennifer Villalobos, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Prudential Life Assurance Public Company Ltd

Highlights of World CX Summit-FSI – ASEAN:

The summit started with an opening keynote by Mohd Afdhal Bin Mohd Nayan, Chief Transformation Officer at Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, where he shared his insights on, ‘How the Financial Service industry is driving Superior Digital Experience’. He was found quoting, “Delivering customer service is an integral part of banks in society, by addressing the new customer needs and concerns and improving own efficiency and effectiveness.”

Sonny Supriyadi, VP – Head, Pricing and Data Analytics at Maybank; Gavin Neil Olsen, FSI DX lead, Southeast Asia at Sitecore and Mike Plimsoll, Snr. Director, Industry Strategy & Marketing at Sitecore discussed at length on topic ‘Know your customer, know your data’. Gavin stated, “The FSI sector is in the early stages of becoming digitally agile and meeting the needs of customers in an always-on platform economy. The first step is to streamline the content lifecycle and data capture to enable new services for existing customers. This is where FSI providers need to be focusing their efforts now — especially as they suddenly have a lot of customers who are online for the first time. This means implementing “content anywhere” processes to allow agility across all channels, owned, earned, and bought, from desktop, mobile, and physical channels, for all aspects of the content lifecycle. Our experience is that fully merging physical and digital channels is a huge culture shift for everyone — customers, employees, and management. The challenge is to build a seamless CX (customer experience) that reaches across all touchpoints and makes a difference to your bottom line, and brand loyalty.”

Landon Barnes, Principal Solutions Consultant at UserTesting spoke at length on ‘3 Reasons Companies Miss the Mark on Customer Centricity and How to Fix it’. He was quoted saying, “Businesses have to think from the customer perspective and how they want to do business and how quickly they want those experiences.”

While speaking about ‘Digital Transformation for Banking In 2021: Leveraging low code technology to accelerate customer-facing and operational processes’, Andrew Fenton, Chief Sales Officer EMEA & APAC at Creatio, mentioned that, “There is a huge amount of disruption and challenges within the world of banking and this forces the technology trends towards omnichannel communication.”

Riva Uy, Solution Architect Manager at OutSystems and Marouen Zelleg, Senior Director at OutSystems shed light on the topic ‘Reimagining Customer Experience, Empowered with Fast and Agile technology’. Riva stated, “The demand and the supply for fintech are rising as many
companies are massively evolving their business strategy.”

“Virtual events are an excellent opportunity for everyone in the industry to come together during these difficult times. Affordable and intelligent CX & FSI solutions & strategies are the need of the hour,” says Mithun Shetty, CEO of Trescon.

World CX Summit – FSI is officially sponsored by Lead Sponsor – UserTesting; Platinum Sponsor – Sitecore; Gold Sponsor – OutSystems, Servicenow, Creatio; Silver Sponsors – Freshworks, Teleperformance.

About World CX Summit

World CX Summit is a thought-leadership-driven, business-focused, global series of events that takes place in strategic locations across the world.

The summit will also host a combination of insightful sessions, keynotes, case studies and panel discussions sure to deliver actionable insights that attendees can apply to their Customer Experience strategies.

About Trescon

Trescon is a global business events and consulting firm that provides wide range of business services to a diversified client base that includes corporations, governments and individuals. Trescon is specialised in producing highly focused B2B events that connect businesses with opportunities through conferences, road shows, expos, demand generation, investor connect and consulting services.

For further details about the announcement, please contact:
Media, PR & Corporate Communications
+91 81059 75937
media@tresconglobal.com

1982 Ventures invests in Lista, the MSME book-keeping app for the Philippines

Lista is a bookkeeping app for MSMEs based in the Philippines. Through its financial inclusion app, they offer Filipinos a free and secure way of managing finances such as tracking debts, recording transactions, and even issuing invoices.

Lista raised an oversubscribed round from 1982 Ventures, East Ventures, Saison Capital, Alternate Ventures, Monde Nissin Family Ventures’ Willy Arifin and prominent angel investors such as former Grab Philippines President and co-founder Brian Cu, Pinelabs CEO Amrish Rau, CRED Founder Kunal Shah, Jupiter Bank Chief Executive Officer Jitendra Gupta and Google APAC Senior Execs Aurelien Pichon, Alap Bharadwaj.

Lista was founded by Aaron Villegas, an experienced entrepreneur with product experience, and Khriz Lim, a former Grab executive that led GrabFood’s expansion into the region. Since its launch in September, Lista has helped collect close to US$1.5 million in receivables of MSMEs all over the Philippines.

Aaron Villegas, co-founder of Lista, stated, “Helping Philippine MSMEs was an advocacy close to my heart. Growing up, I saw the challenges my family endured in running a sari-sari store (community store).” Continuing, “I spent almost a year just talking to various MSMEs in the province and trying different ideas to help them grow. And that’s when I realized that the first thing to do to really help them grow is through digitization and replacing pen and paper with easy-to-use tech.”

As the pandemic struck early last year, digitization of business processes proved to be pivotal in ensuring the continuity of business operations. Micro, small and medium enterprises or MSMEs were among the most affected during the prolonged quarantines – 74% of these businesses halted operations due to the lockdowns according to the country’s Department of Trade and Industry. MSMEs are vital to the Philippine economy as they comprise about 99.51% of business establishments in the country and employ around 63% of the country’s workforce, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Khriz Lim, former Grab executive and co-founder of Lista stated, “MSMEs are the backbone of the Philippine economy and it’s time we stop leaving them behind. Through this app, we want to revolutionize the way MSMEs operate and provide them with a reliable digital partner for small businesses in the country.”

Using digital tools can help fill this gap and allow them to record transactions and track their growth more easily. Lista aims to help MSMEs, including freelancers, logistics operators and riders, and other small businesses, digitize their business and provide a free and secure way of easily managing their finances.

Herston Elton Powers, Managing Partner of 1982 Ventures stated, “Lista is empowering millions of MSME businesses in the Philippines move from pen and paper to digital. The bookkeeping app space in the Philippines is wide open and Aaron and Khriz are the right founders to capture the opportunity. Lista’s product and strong traction have put them in pole position to win the market.”

Lista will use the funds to grow their team and expand their product offering to reach more MSMEs in the country.

About Lista
Lista is a bookkeeping app for small businesses, enabling them to digitize their business and provide a free and secure way of easily managing their finances. For more information visit: https://www.lista.com.ph.

About 1982 Ventures
1982 Ventures is the leading seed fund investing in fintech startups in Southeast Asia. Our focus makes us the first port of call for fintech founders and the first money in. Our investments include Southeast Asian Open Banking API Platform Brick, Vietnam’s leading Buy Now, Pay Later Fundiin, Vietnam’s Rent-to-Own Home Financing app Homebase (YC W21), Indonesia’s first Earned Wage Access platform Wagely. 1982 Ventures is investing in and supporting the best founders to positively impact the future of financial services in Southeast Asia. Visit https://1982.vc, or follow us on LinkedIn.

For media enquiries:
khriz@lista.com.ph

1982 Ventures Portfolio:
— Bluesheets seamlessly connects and automates all your financial data in one place. (Singapore)
— Brick is a financial API platform that allows startups and financial institutions to build innovative solutions with a single line of code. (Indonesia)
— Fundiin is a buy now pay later that offers customer friendly instalment payments at the point of sale and allows merchants to expand their customer base. (Vietnam)
— Go Zayaan is an online travel agency (OTA) focused on digital booking of flights, hotels, tours and other transportation. (Bangladesh)
— Homebase (YC W21) is Vietnam based real estate technology company that provides innovative home ownership and financing solutions across Southeast Asia. (Vietnam)
— Hugo is Singapore’s first Wealthcare app that helps users develop healthy saving and investing habits that make financial security accessible to everyone. (Singapore)
— Infina is an investing platform that allows Vietnamese to buy + sell stocks, ETFs and mutual funds. (Vietnam)
— NextPay (YC W21) is a SME digital bank in The Philippines. They use us to send invoices, collect payments, do payroll, and pay their bills. (Philippines)
— PINA is a personal finance app which helps people to manage and grow their money by providing automated money management and investing solutions in a single app. (Indonesia)
— Wagely is a platform that provides financial wellness and earned wage access to millions of low and middle-income workers. (Indonesia)

Regional insurtech Igloo and HD, the region’s only D2C direct-pay healthcare marketplace, announce partnership to launch insurance products on HDmall

  • Strategic partnership marks Igloo’s first partnership with Digital Health brand
  • Offers HD’s over 6 million users digital convenience for medical, hospitalisation, cancer and personal accident insurance
  • Taps on the growth potential of the general insurance market in Thailand which was estimated around 4 billion in 2020, and expected to grow to USD10.6 billion in 2025
  • Direct-to-consumer health insurance distribution opportunities buoyed by Millenial and Gen Z digital-first consumers who rely less on traditional employer-based health insurance, according to research by AVIA Health and Accenture

Regional insurtech company Igloo has teamed up with HD to provide health-related micro-insurance products via the HDmall healthcare marketplace platform in Thailand. Muang Thai Insurance (MTI), one of Thailand’s leading non-life insurance companies, will be underwriting the health insurance products such as cancer and mobile syndrome insurance, among others.

HD is a D2C direct-pay healthcare marketplace in emerging Southeast Asia. HD leverages ecommerce technology to connect direct-pay patients to hospitals and healthcare SMEs, with the mission to bring affordable healthcare to the ‘99%’. The healthtech startup has grown its users to 6 million and recently sold over 10,000 Moderna vaccines within 12 hours via the HDmall platform.

“Igloo’s tech capabilities and insurance expertise will join our portfolio of ecommerce technologies that empower direct-pay healthcare including credit card installment payments and buy-now-pay-later solutions that have already enabled people to pay for high-ticket healthcare procedures such as In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), Cesarean Delivery (C-Section), and Lasik; dental-related products such as Clear Aligners and Invisalign; as well as medical aesthetics-related procedures” said Sheji Ho, CEO and Co-Founder of HD.

“We are happy to partner with HD, our first digital health partner on top of industries such as ecommerce, travel, telecommunications, logistics to delivery space. Together, we aim to create an insurance customer journey that meets the needs of today’s digital consumers, especially in Southeast Asia and in Thailand where technology has become more and more a part of our daily lives. HD’s healthcare marketplace and unique access to Millennial and Gen Z patients is the perfect fit for us to implement our technology of digital insurance that is relevant in today’s world. Igloo will continue to look at expanding its partnership in the digital health space across the SEA region,” said Raunak Mehta, Chief Commercial Officer, Igloo.

Across emerging Southeast Asia, 40% of healthcare expenditure is paid out of pocket (compared to 10% in the US). With the rise of the ‘Creator Economy’ and popularity of fractional trading apps like Robinhood – both of which were accelerated through the Covid pandemic – an increasing number of Millennial and Gen Z consumers are looking for more control over their healthcare consumption and expenditure. Unlike their parents’ generation, these digital-first consumers are less and less likely to be tied to traditional employer-based health insurance. This is based on recent findings by AVIA Health, a healthcare digital transformation consultancy, as well as Accenture’s Digital Health Consumer Survey.

“We see Igloo’s innovative micro health insurance technologies as a perfect complement to our focus on unlocking the $24 billion direct-pay healthcare opportunity in emerging Southeast Asia. With only 0.06% health insurance penetration (gross written premiums out of GDP), we need to take an out-of-the-box approach to empower patients in Thailand to finance healthcare,” added Sheji.

Igloo’s technologies will be integrated into HD and applied to both self-checkout and conversational commerce on the HDmall direct-pay healthcare marketplace platform to ensure the best possible user experience.

“We’re excited about partnering with both Igloo and HD, the latter marking our first collaboration with a healthtech startup. This strategic initiative will enable Muang Thai Insurance to distribute our micro-insurance products direct-to-consumer at scale and expand to a vast majority of customers digitally while leveraging Igloo’s machine learning and HD’s healthcare targeting and segmentation,” said Mrs. Nualphan Lamsam, President and Chief Executive Officer of Muang Thai Insurance PCL.

Partnership image is available for download here.
https://preciouscomms.box.com/s/jp4alg2s52kji7bnw7okaq62368jsugr

About Igloo
Igloo, previously known as “Axinan”, is the first full-stack insurtech firm to emerge from Singapore. It has offices in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, and tech centres are located in China. With a mission of making insurance accessible for all, the firm leverages big data, real-time risk assessment, and end-to-end automated claims management to create B2B2C insurance solutions for platform companies and insurance companies. Igloo’s insurance solutions enable companies to eliminate their exposure to operational risk, create new revenue streams, and optimize and enhance existing products and services. In April 2020, Igloo successfully closed its Series A+ funding round worth US$8.2 million, bringing its total funding to US$16 million from global investors.

Igloo is led by a core team that comprises top talent from the technology and insurance industries hailing from global corporations including Facebook, Grab, Flipkart, Garena, Manulife, Shopee, Yahoo! and Zalora. For more information, please visit https://www.iglooinsure.com

About HD
HD is a D2C direct-pay healthcare marketplace in emerging Southeast Asia. HD leverages ecommerce technology to connect direct-pay patients to hospitals and healthcare SMEs, with the mission to bring affordable healthcare to the ‘99%’. Direct-pay health shoppers on the HD marketplace access a range of affordable services including consumer healthcare, online pharmacy / telepharmacy, and telehealth, while healthcare providers benefit from HD’s suite of healthcare marketing solutions. With an average of 40% of healthcare expenditure being paid out of pocket in our region, we believe our ‘JD Health for SEA’ + ‘Shopify for Healthcare’ approach is key to fixing healthcare for a $24 billion direct-pay market. HD is currently available to users in both Thailand and Indonesia, with Vietnam launching in 2022.

About Muang Thai Insurance (MTI)
Founded in 1932 and currently one of Thailand’s top 5 leading non-life insurance companies under the leadership of Mrs. Nualphan Lamsam, President and Chief Executive Officer. Muang Thai Insurance PCL (MTI) has been expanding businesses continuously through various progressions including insurance product development and social development matching with the current global social situation. MTI’s main products include fire insurance, marine insurance, motor insurance, and miscellaneous insurance. The company has launched many digital platforms to reach out and provide new services to satisfy all needs of all customers.

Media Contact for Igloo
PRecious Communications
igloo@preciouscomms.com

Trintech Named to Inc.’s First-Annual Best-Led Companies List

  • First-ever roundup of companies recognized for management excellence in performance and value creation, market penetration and customer engagement, talent, and leadership team

Trintech, a leading global provider of integrated Record to Report software solutions for the Office of Finance, today announced that it has been named to Inc.’s first-annual ‘Best-Led Companies’ list – a select, data-driven list of the strongest U.S. firms with revenue of $50 million to $2 billion. This novel program is the first Inc. recognition to honor both public and private companies.

The final list recognizes 250 companies that are agile enough to maneuver but also big enough to have a broad impact. These companies employ 35 million people, about one of four U.S. workers. All 250 have a successful track record with leadership teams that spur solid performance, create value, penetrate markets, engage with customers, and more.

To be considered for the list, each company had to fill out an application answering questions about its performance, executive team, and leadership. Applicants were then analyzed via an algorithm that identified the very best companies according to their leadership teams’ superlative accomplishments in four key areas: performance and value creation; market penetration and customer engagement; talent; and leadership team.

“This inaugural list of companies represents the remarkable midsized companies, both public and private, often founder led, that are at the vanguard of reinventing American business,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. magazine. “With their leadership, all business will benefit from an exciting, competitive future full of possibilities.”

“Innovation is a cornerstone of our ethos,” says Teresa Mackintosh, CEO of Trintech. “And we’re unwavering in our commitment to continue to innovate, even and especially over the last year and a half. Even as we established key strategic partnerships with ServiceNow, Planful, and Microsoft, all providing new solution values for our joint customers, we continued innovating within our own solutions to create greater value for our existing and prospective customers. It is a true honor to be recognized by Inc. on this inaugural list and to be amongst the companies setting the benchmark for others to come.”

Trintech is committed to providing world-class, innovative solutions that deliver increased efficiency, real-time visibility, collaboration and control to mid-market and enterprise organizations around the world. For over 35 years, Trintech has driven innovation and automation throughout the Record to Report (R2R) process with solutions that empower finance and accounting teams with purpose-built technology. Trintech’s solutions enable those teams to go beyond balancing the workload and eliminating manual work from the reconciliation and close process, to analyzing the data and applying human capital and intelligence to higher value tasks such as problem solving and evolving the business with time that is saved.

To compile the list, Inc. evaluated private and public U.S.-based companies with a 2020 revenue of $50 million to $2 billion or a valuation of $50 million to $10 billion using a proprietary 12-point measure of management excellence generated with input from partners at Pitchbook and Shango Labs.

To see the complete list, go to: https://www.inc.com/best-led-companies/2021

The November issue of Inc. magazine is available online now at https://www.inc.com/magazine and will be on newsstands beginning November 9, 2021.

About Inc.
The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc., offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community they need to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across various channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 allows the founders of the best businesses to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

About Trintech
Trintech Inc., a pioneer of Financial Corporate Performance Management (FCPM) software, combines unmatched technical and financial expertise to create innovative, cloud-based software solutions that deliver world-class financial operations and insights. From high volume transaction matching and streamlining daily operational reconciliations, to automating and managing balance sheet reconciliations, intercompany accounting, journal entries, disclosure reporting and bank fee analysis, to governance, risk and compliance – Trintech’s portfolio of financial solutions, including Cadency(R) Platform, Adra(R) Suite, and targeted tools, ReconNET(TM), T-Recs(R), and UPCS(R), help manage all aspects of the financial close process. Over 3,500 clients worldwide – including the majority of the Fortune 100 – rely on the company’s cloud-based software to continuously improve the efficiency, reliability, and strategic insights of their financial operations.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Trintech has offices located across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and the Nordics, as well as strategic partners in South Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific. To learn more about Trintech, visit www.trintech.com or connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Media Contact:
Kelli Shoevlin
214.957.5009
kelli.shoevlin@trintech.com

SOURCE: Trintech, Inc.

Regional insurtech Igloo named among “2021 Inclusive Fintech 50”

  • Igloo has been named amongst the ‘2021 Inclusive Fintech 50’ – from nearly 300 eligible applications globally
  • In August 2021, it also won ‘Insurtech Initiative of the Year’ at the 6th Insurance Asia Awards for its innovative solution with PhilPacific Insurance Brokers & Inc
  • In 2021, Igloo has established over 15 key partnerships in diverse verticals to strengthen its footprint across the region, including leading food delivery and mobile wallet platforms in Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
  • The company aims to strengthen its foothold in Southeast Asia through more strategic partnerships by the end of this year.

Regional insurtech, Igloo, was named as one of the winners of the 2021 Inclusive Fintech 50 (IF50) competition, an annual competition hosted by The Center for Financial Inclusion. In its 3rd year, IF50 recognises early-stage Fintechs that are helping low-income customers and micro and small enterprises who are affected by the pandemic and help them rebound, rebuild and recover.

Igloo’s partnerships with foodpanda in Singapore and Thailand reflect this – in the midst of the Covid-19, Igloo and foodpanda saw a need to provide food delivery riders and their families with a peace of mind as they travel the roads to meet heightened demand from Covid-19 dining restrictions.

Last year, Igloo partnered with foodpanda Thailand to introduce an insurance programme that provides free Covid-19 protection for delivery riders in Thailand. In Singapore this year, Igloo introduced PandaCare, a fuss-free and wallet-friendly insurance coverage for delivery riders. PandaCare is specifically designed for gig economy workers and encompasses six benefits: Accidental Death, Accidental Medical Expenses, Accidental Mobile Phone Screen Damage, Daily Hospital Cash, Permanent Total/Partial, Disablement and Temporary Disablement. These benefits also extend to their immediate family members.

In August 2021, Igloo also won ‘Insurtech Initiative of the Year’ at the 6th Insurance Asia Awards. The award recognises Igloo’s partnership with PhilPacific Insurance Brokers & Inc (Philinsure) in digitalising PhilInsure’s insurance products. This initiative aims to push digitalisation efforts to protect Filipinos and their family members against unpredictable risks such as natural catastrophes like typhoons, flooding, and earthquakes and of course, health risks, including Covid-19.

“We are honoured to be part of the Inclusive Fintech 50. Understanding the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has exerted on the industries, business models, and people’s lives, we at Igloo have accelerated technology and digital transformation to help bring support and peace of mind to people during these uncertain times. This achievement is also a validation of our mission to make insurance more accessible in Southeast Asia,” said Raunak Mehta, Chief Commercial Officer of Igloo.

This year, Igloo has established over 15 key partnerships in diverse industries to make insurance more accessible across the region. In July, the insurtech company partnered with regional leading food delivery platform foodpanda Singapore to launch the insurance product for gig economy workers. In September, Igloo successfully launched partnerships with leading e-Wallet platforms in the Philippines GCash and DANA in Indonesia to provide online shopping insurance product (PH) and phone screen protection insurance product (ID). The company aims to launch more strategic collaborations with partners in different industries ranging across e-commerce, lifestyle, and health tech by the end of this year.

About Igloo
Igloo, previously known as “Axinan”, is the first full-stack insurtech firm to emerge from Singapore. It has offices in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, and tech centres are located in China. With a mission of making insurance accessible for all, the firm leverages big data, real-time risk assessment, and end-to-end automated claims management to create B2B2C insurance solutions for platform companies and insurance companies. Igloo’s insurance solutions enable companies to eliminate their exposure to operational risk, create new revenue streams, and optimize and enhance existing products and services. In April 2020, Igloo successfully closed its Series A+ funding round worth US$8.2 million, bringing its total funding to US$16 million from global investors.

Igloo is led by a core team that comprises top talent from the technology and insurance industries hailing from global corporations including Facebook, Grab, Flipkart, Garena, Manulife, Shopee, Yahoo! and Zalora. For more information, please visit https://www.iglooinsure.com

Media Queries
PRecious Communications for Igloo
igloo@preciouscomms.com

Seedify Taps Blockpass for KYC Provision in Blockchain Gaming & NFTs

Blockpass, the pioneer of On-chain KYC(TM), is excited to announce its growing partnership with Seedify, the gateway to blockchain gaming. Seedify will be using Blockpass’ proprietary KYC solutions to provide a safe, secure and compliant ecosystem where gamers and gaming enthusiasts can enjoy the benefits of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Seedify is a blockchain gaming-focused incubator and launchpad ecosystem which provides support and opportunities for innovators and project developers through access to funding, community and partnership building, and a complete support system to help drive the future of gaming and blockchain. The project is assisting gamers as they begin to explore new avenues, spending time on games and taking advantage of opportunities to earn in-game item NFTs and tokens. Through holding $SFUND, users are able to buy game tokens before they’re listed on the market, by participating in IGOs (initial game offerings) on the Seedify Launchpad.

Blockpass is a digital identity verification provider which provides a one-click compliance gateway to financial services and other regulated industries. Through Blockpass, users can create, store, and manage a data-secure digital identity that can be used for an entire ecosystem of services, token purchases and access to regulated industries. For businesses and merchants, Blockpass is a comprehensive KYC & AML SaaS that requires no integration and no setup cost. You can set up a service in minutes, test the service for free and start verifying and on-boarding users. Currently with more than 160,000 verified user identity profiles, Blockpass facilitates instant onboarding, and to date almost 5000 services have taken advantage of this opportunity to get access to users with reusable digital identity profiles.

“Seedify is a leader in the blockchain gaming industry and we were delighted to work with them to bring our compliance technology to that space,” said Adam Vaziri, Blockpass CEO. “By bringing seamless and efficient identity verification to gamers we hope to facilitate a safe and secure ecosystem where they can play and earn.”

“Blockpass’ compliance software provides a vital solution, ensuring ease of use, along with a safe and secure KYC process,” noted Levent Cem Aydan, Founder and CEO – Seedify. “This gives us the ability to seamlessly and efficiently onboard new users, maintaining the integrity of our platform and giving our community confidence that their private data is protected.”

Blockpass has grown significantly in size and use since its inception, both in the number and range of users and organizations it has partnered with and the scope of its work. Blockpass continues to develop its digital identity protocol with updates and additions to improve the compliance experience. The existential need for DeFi projects to be regulatory compliant and the recent integrations have led to a surge in interest for Blockpass’ On-chain KYC(TM) solution. Through its recent work with Animoca Brands, Blockpass is developing the ability to provide KYC where the delivery of the verification result is provably sent and shown on a blockchain without sharing the underlying data. This represents a significant step towards the future Blockpass hopes to bring about where identity verification can be proved without revealing any personal information at all.

About Blockpass
Blockpass, the pioneer of On-chain KYC(TM), is a fast, fully comprehensive KYC & AML screening software-as-a-service for blockchains, Crypto, Defi and other regulated industries. With Blockpass, you get an unmatched set of benefits for any compliance service that includes pay-as-you-go, no setup cost, no integration necessary, free testing, immediate launch and at the lowest cost. Blockpass’ KYC Connect(TM) platform enables businesses to select requirements for customer onboarding that can include ID authentication, face-matching, address checking, AML ongoing monitoring and/or screening of sanctions lists, politically exposed persons (PEP), and adverse media. Through Blockpass, end-users easily create a verified portable identity that they can control and re-use to onboard with any service instantly. By integrating with Chainlink Network – a decentralized oracle solution – in early January, Blockpass introduced the first On-chain KYC(TM) solution that will service many blockchains in the years to come. The Blockpass App is available from the App Store and Google Play.

For more information and updates, please visit and sign up to the following:
Promotional video: https://youtu.be/SvO2cw3e-SI
Website: http://www.blockpass.org
Email: sales@blockpass.org

About Seedify
Seedify is a blockchain gaming-focused incubator and launchpad ecosystem, empowering innovators and project developers through access to funding, community and partnership building and a full support system to help drive the future of gaming and blockchain.

To learn more about Seedify please visit the links below:
Website: https://launchpad.seedify.fund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeedifyFund
Telegram Announcement: https://t.co/KcAlGtKYvH?amp=1
Medium: https://medium.com/seedify