Tag: Neobank

Singapore – Singapore’s local fintech YouTrip is marking its fourth year with a reality TV show-themed celebration that will be running for the whole month of August. Called ‘BirthdayTrippin’ Season 4, each campaign activity, or ‘episode’, will be offering a different experience and surprise, and the ‘contestants’ will be YouTrip users themselves.

YouTrip said its focus for ‘BirthdayTrippin’ is to celebrate with its users through interactive experiences and fun giveaways. 

Episode 1, which is ‘Get Your Trip On’, is an online giveaway on Instagram to reward users, which will run from 8 – 22 August. Meanwhile, Episode 2, called ‘Life’s a Beach’, is an outdoor brand activation at Raffles Green to engage with YouTrip’s audiences, which will be live from 17-19 August. 

On the other hand, Episode 3, the ‘Finders’ Keepers’ episode will be a hybrid activity where users are encouraged to participate in an islandwide ‘treasure hunt’. YouTrip cards will be hidden around Singapore where location hints will be given online via Instagram Stories. This will take place every Wednesday, from 10 – 31 August. 

And ultimately, for ‘The Finale’, YouTrip concludes the ‘reality tv show’ with a one-night-only birthday bash. The last ‘episode’ will happen on 31 August.

YouTrip, dubbed as Singapore’s first multi-currency wallet with linked Mastercard, has become top-of-mind amongst users through its unique fintech offerings and highly engaging marketing. 

At the height of the pandemic lockdown, the neobank was one of the platforms that fast leveraged the use of TikTok to share helpful lifestyle content such as on travel and food.

Just May of this year, YouTrip officially entered the B2B space with the launch of its corporate card for SMEs.

California, USA – Vemanti Group, a California-based holding company which helps develop emerging technology companies with a focus on fintech and blockchain applications, is preparing to build one of the first small-to-medium enterprise (SME) neobanking solutions in Vietnam. In a recent announcement by Vemanti, the group shared that it has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent with Vietnam Public Joint-stock Commercial Bank (PVcomBank), which signals its strategic move into the digital banking space.

The LOI is a major step forward on an integrated bilateral formal partnership for Vemanti Group and PVcomBank, which announced their first Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to create joint financial projects in Q3 of 2021. PVcomBank is a fully licensed and regulated bank in Vietnam with comprehensive core banking products and services. Recently, the company has worked to advance its digital banking segment, offering new and easier to use banking features to its large customer base.

Vemanti said it will be utilizing PVcomBank’s industry-leading banking expertise to provide SMEs in Vietnam with an innovative digital-only financial solution via PVcomBank’s existing core banking system. According to the group, the Vemanti-branded digital bank platform will allow customers to be seamlessly onboarded online, eliminating the need to visit a physical branch, while giving them access to tailored banking services and financial products embedded to their business operations.

“We’re excited to partner with the Vemanti Group as we look toward the future of banking and work to promote the development of innovative products and services,” stated Ha Viet Nguyen, deputy CEO from PVcomBank.

“By integrating our industry-leading technology with other forward-thinking organizations like Vemanti Group, we can improve financial accessibility and access with fewer roadblocks to entry than traditional banking provider,” added Nguyen.

Meanwhile, Tan Tran, CEO of Vemanti Group, commented that the partnership with PVcomBank allows the group to make major inroads into digital banking, providing underserved SMEs with more streamlined and efficient products compared to the traditional banking structure. 

“We’re looking forward to collaborating with PVcomBank and working together to advance the future of banking in Vietnam and Southeast Asia,” said Tran.

Vemanti shared that it is planning to continue its financial service expansion into additional countries in Southeast Asia in the near future.

Singapore – Local-based neobank YouTrip is planning to enter the adjacent B2B payments space. This was first revealed by YouTrip when they announced the brand’s major plans last September which included unveiling their goal of a brand refresh for 2022. 

The brand reiterated its foray to the B2B space alongside the new funding it secured, bagging US$30m in a series A funding. The fresh funds put its total funding at over US$60m since it launched in 2018. The company said that the funding will also be used to accelerate its entrance into the wider Southeast Asia region. 

At the core of their B2B offering is YouBiz, a corporate credit card which will offer higher spending limits while transacting at exchange rates in over 150 currencies with credit terms offered to selected business account users. Within its sighted B2B alignment, YouTrip will also allow companies to issue corporate cards to employees, with all expenses streamlined into one platform.

YouBiz will be rolled out in Singapore in the first quarter of 2022, and with plans to bring it to five other Southeast Asia countries in the next twelve months.

For Caecilia Chu, CEO and co-founder at YouTrip, the latest funding gives them the resources to strengthen their multiple growth engines in order to stay resilient and well-primed for expansion into new markets.

“We have transformed tremendously as a company since our last funding round. From a mobile travel wallet, we have grown to establish a strong foothold in new territories such as overseas online spending to meet the extraordinary shifts in consumer behaviors. We believe there is untapped potential in cross-border payments, and our market-leading position in this space puts us in a good place to serve more of our users’ payment needs – from travelers, to online shoppers, and now, businesses,” Chu explained.

Meanwhile, Arthur Mak, co-founder at YouTrip, commented , “We’re very excited about the B2B payments opportunity. It is a segment with a deep market, as companies increasingly operate in a distributed and borderless manner and we expect their cross-border payment needs to go up. By incorporating our company’s core strengths of offering the best exchange rates and an extremely easy to use interface into YouBiz, we help businesses save time and cost, so that they can focus their energy and efforts in finding growth.”