{"id":2669,"date":"2021-10-13T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T06:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=2669"},"modified":"2021-10-13T06:00:22","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T06:00:22","slug":"daily-markup-354-curlec-grows-400-raising-funds-for-expansion-grab-financial-groups-reuben-lai-on-crypto-growth-more-kredivo-talks-consumer-behavior-on-cnn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=2669","title":{"rendered":"Daily Markup #354: Curlec grows 400%, raising funds for expansion; Grab Financial Group\u2019s Reuben Lai on crypto, growth &amp; more; Kredivo talks consumer behavior on CNN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/QA1aob6IVCKaxpiMyXwjRbRIa6fL-90zlTwfKnBo2c4t5FPlhB9IT131_Tcj1jQR6ZaG87SZWSuKnodbTO-UWTMu5efQNqvcHotapmrGjX0fiLzMVfmqPHrYD6EoON6Ti0Vc73kH=s0\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>Credit: KrAsia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Going global<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The inaugural <a href=\"https:\/\/kr-asia.com\/alibaba-x-krasia-global-startup-accelerator-launches-demo-day\">Demo Day<\/a> by Alibaba Cloud x KrASIA Global Startup Accelerator concluded last week, with 500-backed fintech startup <a href=\"https:\/\/curlec.com\/\">Curlec<\/a> finishing as a <a href=\"https:\/\/kr-asia.com\/curlec-stabilizes-recurring-revenues-for-malaysian-businesses-in-the-subscription-economy\">finalist<\/a>.<\/li><li>The program presents startups with the opportunity to join Alibaba\u2019s global ecosystem and develop connections with top venture capital firms in Southeast Asia and China.<\/li><li>According to co-founder and CEO Zac Liew, the startup currently works with 500 clients and processes around 1 million transactions each year. He added that the overall business has grown 400% since the pandemic, and it broke even in September.<\/li><li>Curlec is currently fundraising and expects to close its Series A funding round by the end of this year. The fresh capital will be used to fund its regional expansion and build new software and financial service offerings.<\/li><li>Read more on KrAsia <a href=\"https:\/\/kr-asia.com\/curlec-stabilizes-recurring-revenues-for-malaysian-businesses-in-the-subscription-economy\">here<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/7jeo3pHzEaBr3UJ1cBk6YQhKyrUcLE-oh2W7qovcwHA39fNMVu7SD_D9jfrzSHpbT-9KU3Nb4wovNgIoVCv16rnnJEcjvqeKT0NkA5BZhPAH_4_qCvQa3WD_VhfML52fs7jvnJwL=s0\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>Credit: KrAsia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<strong>A productive year<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>This year alone, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/sg\/grab-financial-group\/\">Grab Financial Group<\/a> (GFG), the fintech arm of 500-backed super app <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/\">Grab<\/a>, won a <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2020\/12\/04\/grab-singtel-and-ant-group-win-digital-bank-licenses-in-singapore\/\">digibank license<\/a> in Singapore and raised its first <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2021\/01\/13\/grab-financial-group-raises-300-million-series-a-led-by-hanhwa-asset-management\/\">$300 million Series A<\/a> round. More recently, it <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.coinhako.com\/grabpay-supported-on-coinhako-to-enable-instant-access-to-digital-assets\/\">partnered with cryptocurrency<\/a> CoinHako.<\/li><li>In an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dealstreetasia.com\/stories\/grab-financials-reuben-lai-262354\/\">interview<\/a>, Reuben Lai, senior managing director of Grab Financial Group, shared that the startup\u2019s aim is to reach the underbanked and financially underserved in Southeast Asia.<\/li><li>Currently, around 40% of GFG\u2019s transactions come from external partners like Zalora, Lazada, and Bukalapak. Reuben added that the startup\u2019s goal is also to be a platform for micro-merchants, where Grab offers tools to grow their businesses.<\/li><li>\u201cWe grew our merchant network by almost 3x. Last year alone, loans grew 4x year-on-year. Insurance was up more than 4x in terms of Gross Written Premium (GWP), and in terms of transactions, it was more than US$130 million since we launched two years ago,\u201d Reuben said of the startup\u2019s performance.<\/li><li>Read the full interview on DealStreetAsia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dealstreetasia.com\/stories\/grab-financials-reuben-lai-262354\/\">here<\/a>. A subscription may be required.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/479DIq-PQg2lq-as8FDjf-R_VC4-VbIIXUWmuLxkMbImhPYiL18-JiZ0SUQx3-xvKszPQ1yMBOb6jqt3iOs32pJPHFn0l4-LKIYjp4yfYc47SUHJVti4MoCoRGs1uE1tAEhHWFYW=s0\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>Credit: TechCrunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A shift in consumer behavior<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\u201cThe number of users who started using PayLater as a payment platform has exploded. When you survey a large sort of base of e-commerce buyers, 25% plus of those users now say that they&#8217;ve actually used a Paylater product at least once,\u201d said Akshay Garg, CEO &amp; co-founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/finaccel.co\/\">FinAccel<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KUfpYYLZclg\">CNN Indonesia<\/a>.<\/li><li>The pandemic has accelerated digitization globally. Akshay shared that today, its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kredivo.com\/\">Kredivo<\/a> is one of the fastest-growing and one of the top 5 payment methods for e-commerce in Indonesia.<\/li><li>He observed that the 35-50 age group, which typically recorded 13-14% of all purchase value, has gone up to 25% over the pandemic. \u201cThis means a number of users who were not using e-commerce as primary purchase method have migrated to e-commerce.\u201d<\/li><li>Watch the full interview on CNN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KUfpYYLZclg\">here<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Going global The inaugural Demo Day by Alibaba Cloud x KrASIA Global Startup Accelerator concluded last week, with 500-backed fintech startup Curlec finishing as a finalist. The program presents startups with the opportunity to join Alibaba\u2019s global ecosystem and develop connections with top venture capital firms in Southeast Asia and China. According to co-founder and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[322],"tags":[382,364,143,469],"class_list":["post-2669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily","tag-curlec","tag-finaccel","tag-grab","tag-kredivo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Daily Markup #354: Curlec grows 400%, raising funds for expansion; Grab Financial Group\u2019s Reuben Lai on crypto, growth &amp; more; Kredivo talks consumer behavior on CNN - Markup<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=2669\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Daily Markup #354: Curlec grows 400%, raising funds for expansion; Grab Financial Group\u2019s Reuben Lai on crypto, growth &amp; more; Kredivo talks consumer behavior on CNN - Markup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Going global The inaugural Demo Day by Alibaba Cloud x KrASIA Global Startup Accelerator concluded last week, with 500-backed fintech startup Curlec finishing as a finalist. 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