The funding will help BigPay, which has operations in Malaysia and Singapore, to strengthen its presence in Southeast Asia
AirAsia’s BigPay secures up to $100m in financing. (Credit: AirAsia Group Berhad)
BigPay, a digital portfolio company of AirAsia, has raised up to $100m in a financing round, led by SK Group, a South Korean conglomerate.
The funding will help BigPay, which has operations in Malaysia and Singapore, to strengthen its presence in Southeast Asia.
Established in 2017, the company offers a prepaid card that can be used to spend anywhere Visa or Mastercard is accepted as well as local and international money transfers, micro-insurance, bill payments and a budgeting tool.
It also introduced a series of products for its users focused on long-term financial health and accessibility.
BigPay CEO and co-founder Salim Dhanani said: “Our ambition has always been to establish BigPay as one of the largest challenger banks in Southeast Asia.
“Closing this financing round gives us the ability to build out our offerings, accelerate product development and scale. We are thrilled to have SK Group with us on this journey.”
Dhanani added: “We’ve established ourselves in Malaysia as one of the leading providers of digital banking services, and we want to expand our product sets, along with growing the model to new markets.
“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.”
The funding announcement follows BigPay’s filing of its application with a consortium of strategic partners to Bank Negara Malaysia for a digital banking license.
AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said: “I am excited for this great partnership with SK Group and for their belief in BigPay’s mission to bring inclusivity to financial services.
“This is the first investment into one of our portfolio digital companies and a testament to our digital growth story – we don’t anticipate it being the last.
“SK Group is second to none when it comes to innovation and experience, so we truly believe they can share their expertise and know-how so that this investment can mark the beginning of a new exciting digital banking era.”