Start up x Corporate MeetUp

• • In February 2020,  UNCDF hosted a ‘speed networking’ event for local fintech organisations in Kuala Lumpur. This event is part of the i3 initiative’s efforts to spark fintech partnerships that can improve the financial health of Malaysian citizens.
  • Roughly 40 participants attended, including partners at Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, Bank Negara Malaysia and organisations that participated in the FinLab Financial Health Scale Up Challenge and B40 Persona Challenge. These organisations provide services such as micro-insurance, e-wallets, micro-savings apps, and psychometric analysis. At the event, we arranged fast introductions between pairs of organisations with high potential for collaboration.

• Speed-dating’ format for fast explorations of partnerships: The event comprised back-to-back 15-minute meetings between pairs of organisations. Each team met with three or four others. With the support of a moderator, teams in each meeting brainstormed collaboration opportunities and agreed on next steps. This format allowed for several fast introductions in a short timeframe.

• Event attendees from Malaysia’s fintech industry: AEON Credit, Axiata, BigPay, GHL, Global Psytech, Merchantrade, MyTHEO, Pod, RazerPay, Senang

• Responses from event attendees:

• “Overall, I think this is a good initiative for Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and for Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). We do have the capacity for reaching out to other customers in the M40 and B40. It’s how we can all gel together and come up with solutions that are beneficial to all people.” Henry Ho, Head of Sales & Business Development (Lending), Sales and Business Development, Axiata
• “Partnerships are pretty important to an organisation like ours. Obviously in financial services, things are regulated, and we won’t have licensing across multiple markets, so we need to work with other people.” Navin Rajagopalan, COO/ Founder, BigPay
• “If it were not for this event, yes, we would have approached these other teams anyway. But we would probably meet them six months later, or a year later. Two of the three that we met, we actually didn’t know anything about them, and we didn’t even know they exist. We probably would not have heard about them within the next six months.” Danny Leong, Group Chief Executive Officer, GHL

“The other teams that we met were very open, which was surprising, particularly towards insurance! They had a lot of questions, which I was surprised about, but it shows interest to take this further and do a deal. I foresee that we can close 2 of the 3 deals from today in the coming weeks.” Sharian Raj, CEO, Senang