BigPay raises $100 million investment from SK Group
Bigpay, the wallet arm of the aviation company AirAsia, has raised $100 million for its growth and expansion from the SK Group of South Korea.
The BigPay platform offers a digital wallet for users to send and receive funds, make transactions, purchase insurance, convert currencies into different fiats, and other such finance-related functions. The company hopes to use these funds to develop into a challenger bank and also build out more features and upgrades into its platform.
The company currently operates in Malaysia and Singapore and it has plans to expand into other regions as well, for which the current funding, the biggest funding that the company has raised so far, would be used.
“Thailand and the wider ASEAN is next, but we’ll be launching key products before that, with fully digital personal loans, transactional lending, and an offering for MSMEs,” said Co-Founder and CEO of BigPay, Salim.
The news of the investment comes just a few weeks after the news that BigPay has applied for a license to start a digital bank in Malaysia that would be able to offer a range of investments that include savings accounts, debit/credit cards, and other related banking services. Digital banking is expected to be the next frontier for the banking industry as it prepares for a new generation of users who spend most of their time online and on their mobile. Users nowadays do not like to visit branches for each banking service and they prepare the speed and the reliability of digital banking.
“Our ethos has always been clear. We want to launch financial products that are not only simple and convenient but transparent and accessible to everyone. We are ready to embark on the next stage of our journey with SK Group and we will continue to provide fair financial services to communities across Southeast Asia,” said Salim.
Digital banking also ensures that the platform would be able to easily onboard users even in remote areas who would normally not have easy access to bank branches and this is a win-win situation as the bank gets new customers and the users can get easy banking.
AirAsia is also set to acquire Gojek in Thailand as it begins its expansion in the ASEAN region and it would hope to capture the large market in this region with its digital banking platform.
