Axiata making good headway in fintech ventures
Company has invested US$200m on digital and Internet ventures since 2013
AXIATA Group Bhd is in the process of building one of the largest financial technology (fintech) companies in Asia that will include five micro services — payments, remittance, lending, savings and insurance.
President and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim said since 2013, Axiata had invested US$200 million (RM788 million) on its digital and Internet ventures.
Of the US$200 million, RM50 million worth of investments went into its fintech business.
“We now have 30 digital brands and six joint-venture companies, including e-commerce business 11street and BIMA, a digital insurance company from Sweden.
“BIMA alone is now the largest insurance company in terms of customers in three countries, namely Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
“You will see more investment from Axiata in the fintech space moving forward,” he said after the launch of the partnership between Axiata’s mobile wallet Boost and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), here, yesterday.
In April last year, Axiata’s digital services arm Axiata Digital invested US$16.8 million into BIMA. In less than a year, BIMA, along with Axiata’s subsidiary Smart, has become the largest provider of life insurance in Cambodia.
According to reports, three million Axiata customers in three of its operating companies are covered by mobile insurance policies by end-2016.
Meanwhile, Jamaludin said the company had set an ambitious target to get 100,000 merchants on board to support payments via Boost by year-end from the current 4,000 merchants.
He said based on subscribers, Boost had acquired almost 800,000 users since its rollout in November last year.
Jamaludin said the collaboration with UiTM was part of a larger partnership under the umbrella of “Pioneering Digital@UiTM, Powered by Axiata”.
Both parties has agreed on a master partnership that cuts across four areas — Boost as mobile wallet, a big data onsite and offsite learning experience, an internship programme, and network enhancements with Celcom increasing its network quality at UiTM campuses nationwide.