Malaysian fintech MoneyMatch secures US$4.4mil Series A with KAF Investment Bank as lead investor

• Round began in 2019 with Cradle Seed ventures, includes venture debt facility via MDV
• Aims to partner with digital bank licensees, expand to Singapore and Hong Kong

Malaysian fintech MoneyMatch Sdn Bhd has announced a successful closing of its Series A round totaling US$4.43 million (RM18.5 million) over two tranches, initially led by Cradle Seed Ventures in 2019 and now closed with KAF Investment Bank leading the second tranche earlier this year, subject to final regulatory approval. As part of the fundraising round, MoneyMatch also secured a venture debt facility under Malaysia Debt Ventures’ Technology Startups Funding Relief Facility.

Adrian Yap, the CEO of MoneyMatch, said, “We are incredibly excited to bring KAF Investment Bank into our family and with their strong reputation in the financial markets and investment circles; this further validates our disruptive business model as we look to scale up now with new fintech product launches and overseas expansion in the coming months. We are also really excited with the upcoming opportunities with digital banking opening up and will be working together with our investors to grow in this space.”

Founded in 2015 by former bankers Adrian and Naysan Munusamy, MoneyMatch was amongst the first batch of fintech startups enrolled into Bank Negara Malaysia’s Financial Technology Regulatory Sandbox in 2017, and successfully graduated to become a full licensee under the Money Services Business Act in 2019.

Since then, MoneyMatch has scaled to serve over twenty thousand individuals and over three thousand small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia whilst also expanding operations to Australia and Brunei, with total transaction volumes exceeding US$550 million (RM2.3 billion) covering cross border trade payments and individual remittances.

Since starting operations in mid-2017, the startup has since grown to over 70 full time employees spanning three jurisdictions and winning multiple fintech awards. MoneyMatch has managed to thrive despite the ongoing global pandemic and stringent domestic lockdowns with its digital payments business hitting record transaction volumes in recent months, riding the trend of growing acceptance of fintech providers even amongst traditional SMEs who now, more than ever, are eager to reduce their costs and optimize their processes with digital services.

With the funding secured, MoneyMatch is looking to further expand its presence to Singapore and Hong Kong by year end, along with allocating additional resources to Malaysia’s northern and southern regions as the startup looks to ramp up its presence both nationally and internationally.

It will be participating in the local digital banking scene, with multiple consortiums looking to leverage off MoneyMatch’s proprietary cross-border payments network, which offers greater value and speed as compared to traditional banking alternatives and with validation from tens of thousands of individual users and SMEs.