Telenor’s Valyou bags double win at global fintech awards

KOTA KINABALU: Kuala Lumpur-based financial technology firm Valyou, a subsidiary of Telenor Group, has won two of the six categories at The RemTECH Awards 2018.

The RemTECH Awards 2018’s panel of judges chose Valyou Mobile Wallet app as the winner of the Technological Innovation Award and the financial technology firm’s Cash-In-Cash-Out (CICO) Business Model as the winner of the End-User Experience Award.

“We built our e-wallet app with the aim of digitalising financial services for migrant communities in Malaysia. Since launching it in 2016, we have been rapidly improving Valyou Mobile Wallet app with insights from customer feedback and usage data,” Valyou acting chief executive officer (CEO) Prasanna Rao said.

“The CICO model is our direct response to a problem prevalent in the remittance market where we observe that a lot of customers have to travel a great distance carrying a lot of cash to send home. Our network of CICO merchants and the e-wallet alleviate this problem by making services more widely accessible.”

With Valyou Mobile Wallet app, users are able to send money from Malaysia to a bank account or via a cash pickup agent overseas. The wallet-to-wallet remittance pioneered by Valyou in Malaysia lets customers send money to Easypaisa accounts in Pakistan and to bKash accounts in Bangladesh.

The CICO model enables Malaysian small- and medium-sized businesses to assist their customers with international remittance transactions using Valyou Mobile Wallet app. Valyou has over 2,000 merchants across Malaysia who offer other value-added services such as prepaid top-up and bill payment.

“This achievement is a recognition of our user-centric products and services and a celebration of the hard work and perseverance of each and every Valyou team member. These awards are a testament to our grand vision of enhancing the lives of our customers and their families back home.

“On behalf of Valyou, I would like to thank all of our customers and partners who have been instrumental in Valyou’s exponential growth for the past two years. We are so grateful for the support and guidance from IFAD and Bank Negara Malaysia,” Rao added.

The awards were presented at the Global Forum on Remittances, Investment and Development (GFRID) on May 8, 2018 hosted by the World Bank Group, the United Nation’sInternationalFundforAgriculturalDevelopment(IFAD),and the Central Bank of Malaysia.

Other winners of the RemTECH Awards 2018 include Rewire (from Israel), SimbaPay (UK), Mahindra Comviva (India), and Trulioo (Canada). Paykii (US), RemitONE (UK) and Koibanx (Argentina) receive special mentions at the awards ceremony.