GrabKitchen launches cloud kitchens in Thailand, Vietnam [Press Release]
GrabFood announced the expansion of its cloud kitchen network, called GrabKitchen, beyond Indonesia. GrabKitchen launches today in Bangkok, Thailand and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and will soon launch in the Philippines and Singapore.
GrabKitchen offers users in particular geography with a variety of curated food selections by leveraging data from historical orders to address cuisine gaps. GrabKitchens are strategically located to bridge consumer demand and availability of food selections while reducing the time for food delivery.
By the end of 2019, GrabFood aims to operate a regional network of cloud kitchens totalling over 50 GrabKitchens in five countries. GrabFood currently operates in 221 cities across six countries.
Hong Kong’s PR startup Start PR secure US$127K from The Bees Group, joining the local marketing firm [Press Release]
Hong Kong-based PR agency Start PR has secured US$127K investment from The Bees Group, local marketing services group. The deal sees Start PR become the first and only PR company among the group.
Also Read: Malaysia-based Ethis Ventures launched charity crowdfunding platform GlobalSadaqah
Founded in 2018, Start PR provides marketing and public relations services for different brands that do not require retainer contracts from clients but offers what they called an “a la carte” marketing and public relations services with no consultation fee charges and fees are based on the key performance indicator.
Funds from this round will be used to further promote Start PR’s marketing and public relations services to different industries.
Islamic fintech Ethis Ventures join forces with fintech Souqa to provide end-to-end Shariah Compliance [Press Release]
Ethis Ventures Sdn Bhd, the fintech company focussed on the Islamic economy, announced that it has signed a Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Souqa Fintech Sdn Bhd, seeking to provide end-to-end Shariah Compliance.
This marks the beginning of Ethis adopting the use of PayHalal, the world’s first Shariah-compliant payment gateway, for its charity crowdfunding platform, GlobalSadaqah. This agreement involving GlobalSadaqah marks the two fintech companies timely joining efforts towards strengthening the Islamic Digital Economy in Malaysia and realising end-to-end Shariah financing.
Since its inception, Islamic finance has strived to be Shariah-compliant from within the conventional finance system. The practicing Muslim has unique needs which are often-times difficult to fully serve, especially when it comes to finance. Islamic fintech holds the promise to bridge such gaps.
The new gateway facilitates an easier, faster and hassle-free user experience for GlobalSadaqah’s donors to donate to their favourite charities and circulate good towards building a better society.
The Strategic Collaboration Agreement was signed by PayHalal’s CEO, Dato’ Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, and the Chief Product Officer of GlobalSadaqah, Mohammed Alim, at the Ethis Ventures office in Petaling Jaya.
Rapyd obtains Singapore remittance licence to scale affordable APAC-targeted digital remittance services [Press Release]
Fintech-as-a-Service platform Rapyd has obtained a Remittance licence by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) that will enable Rapyd’s corporate customers to extend remittance capabilities to their users. It will allow its customers to send and receive money to and from over 100 countries internationally.
Rapyd’s Fintech-as-a-service platform seeks to eliminate the resource-heavy infrastructure requirement and allow businesses to integrate remittance services through Rapyd’s API or Software Development Kit (SDK). This provides businesses with fully compliant access to remittance services that cover all stages of the remittance flow: funds top-up, identity verification, blocking of suspicious transactions, and sending money safely and quickly overseas to over 100 countries, in more than 160 different currencies.
The Rapyd Global Payments Network, a flexible network-of-networks that connects local payments providers globally, enables Rapyd to offer remittances into multiple local payment options around the world, local bank accounts, eWallets, such as Indonesia’s Doku wallet, Sri Lanka’s eZCash, Philippines’ GCash, local debit cards, cash pickup, or other local payments methods to receive funds.
This move signals Rapyd’s increasing focus on the Asia Pacific region. The announcement of the remittance licence follows its partnership announcements with OCBC Bank in Singapore and its collaboration with Hong Kong’s TNG Fintech Group.
Rapyd announced in October 2019 that the company received US$100 million in Series C funding, led by Oak HC/FT with participation from Tiger Global, Coatue, General Catalyst, Target Global, Stripe, and Entrée Capital.
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