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Ascend Money: Southeast Asia’s most sought-after unicorn

IFM_Ascend Money
Ascend Money currently has operations in six Southeast Asian countries which include Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia

Founded in 2013, Ascend Money is a Southeast Asian homegrown financial company. The company’s major shareholder is Thailand’s conglomerate Charoen Pokphand (C.P. Group) which made a purchase of Ascend Money in 2016. After Bow Wave Capital Management joined C.P. Group and Ant Group in the most recent funding, the company’s valuation reached USD 1.5 billion, and it was dubbed as a fintech unicorn in 2021.

Ascend Money recently received an award as ‘Fastest Growing Digital Payment Solution Provider’ at the International Finance Award 2022.

Ascend Money has always been a purpose-driven company. Its goal is to make it possible for everyone to have access to cutting-edge financial services that improve lives. The primary motivation is to enhance the accessibility, affordability, and impact of financial services in the region.

The company currently has operations in six Southeast Asian countries which include Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Through the network of 88,000 agents spread throughout the area and the TrueMoney Wallet application, it services 50 million users and clients. In addition to digital payments, Ascend Money offers digital loans, digital savings, digital investment, and digital insurance.

Although financial inclusion has advanced significantly in Southeast Asia’s economy in recent years, millions of people in the region are still underbanked or unbanked today. They have only a few options because they cannot access banking services. In order to help individuals improve people’s lives, Ascend Money wants to grow into the biggest digital financial platform connecting them to cutting-edge payment and financial solutions. The company is facilitating improvements by transforming how people and businesses pay, enjoy, live, and grow their lives.

Services Ascend Money Provides

The company provides various services when it comes to digital payments, some are as follows:

TrueMoney Wallet: TrueMoney Wallet is a superapp for digital payments and financial services that makes it simple and convenient to access different financial services. Users of TrueMoney Wallet can purchase insurance, apply for BNPL and loans, open saving and investment accounts, and more while earning more TrueMoney Rewards. These activities are in addition to topping up mobile phone and internet packages, shopping online and in physical stores, paying bills, transferring money, and other activities.

TrueMoney Agent Network: Millions of Southeast Asians still have restricted access to financial services because they don’t have bank accounts or live in distant places. TrueMoney agents give them the ability to transact in a more convenient and safe manner by providing one-stop financial services including cell top-ups, bill payments, and remittances at local shops. Most TrueMoney representatives are small-town business owners and entrepreneurs who are struggling to make ends meet. In addition to increasing their income, they have made a significant contribution to increasing the community’s financial inclusion, accessibility, and simplicity.

TrueMoney Transfer: TrueMoney Transfer, a hassle-free international remittance service, enables migrant employees to safely and affordably remit money to their relatives back home. The service is now offered for cross-border money transfers between Thailand and Cambodia and Myanmar.

Pay Beyond Border

In order to provide a simple and safe method of making cashless payments abroad without incurring additional costs, TrueMoney Thailand recently expanded its cross-border payment service. Popular tourist locations like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and more are covered by the service. The service allows Thai travelers to dine, travel, and shop more easily, using secure cashless payments. The payments are made possible using TrueMoney at convenience stores, retail stores, and department stores in Thailand.

In doing so, travelers can avoid finding currency exchanges and using ATMs to get cash. In the end, they can access the programme to view the currency rates prior to transactions. The currency rate simply depends on the daily foreign exchange rates and is not subject to daily variations. Users can pay at checkouts by just scanning the QR code, or they can open a QR code on the TrueMoney Wallet app and have the cashier staff scan it to finish the transaction.

TrueMoney: Thailand’s First Mobile Fintech’s Risk Intelligence

In addition to service expansion, TrueMoney is the first fintech business in Thailand to use industry-leading Mobile Risk Intelligence. The cutting-edge solution, which makes use of device and network intelligence, is the outcome of TrueMoney’s technical cooperation with SHIELD, the world leader in risk intelligence. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to continuously safeguard the TrueMoney platform. In order to maintain user confidence and enable the TrueMoney platform’s continuing growth in Southeast Asia, the technology secures it from beginning to finish.

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