This year, Central JD Fintech Group won in the ‘Best New Fintech Company’ and ‘Best New Digital Payment App in Thailand’ category at the International Finance Award 2021. Notably, this is the first time a Thai company has won two awards on an international platform in the fields of fintech and digital payments.

The group management undertakes by a holding company, Central JD Fintech Holding Co., Ltd. and conducts key business operations by its two subsidiaries which are: Central JD Money Co., Ltd., providing electronic wallet service (Dolfin e-wallet) and digital payment business (e-payment) and Central JD Company Fintech Co., Ltd., providing digital intelligent platform that offers various of products according to customer needs, including credit services, insurance services, as well as other financial products/services. With the digital technology services, Central JD Fintech Group is ready to provide the digital technology to enhance the quality of life with the intelligent platform, ready to move Thailand into a full digital society.

Central JD Fintech, a company that combines the unparalleled expertise in Digi-Lifestyle from Central Group – Thailand’s largest retailer – with advanced technologies and innovation from JD Technology, China’s digital technology leaders, has provided digital financial solutions such as e-payment, digital lending, and e-insurance through ‘Dolfin application’. The company’s goal is to become Thailand’s premier e-finance and fintech service provider, leveraging cutting-edge technology to excel in all aspects of personal finance management to make digital financial services available to all sections of Thai society.

It aims to achieve its goal by improving Thai’s quality of life and preparing them for the transition to a fully digital, cashless society, together with accessible financial innovations that satisfy different demands on an individual level through the integration of financial technology, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and Big Data Analytics. Through their world-class innovation, this e-wallet provides unrivaled safety and simplicity for Thai shoppers on any payment occasion. Today, the Dolfin application has over 3 million users.

Mr. Yol Phokasub, Chairman of Central JD Commerce Company Limited and Director of Central JD Fintech Company Limited said, “As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and digital disruption, the consumer market and consumer lifestyles are transitioning to the digital age. The demand for financial services via digital channels has grown at an exponential rate. We have developed a smart platform, Dolfin, which offers complete digital financial solutions that make digital financial services accessible to all Thais, while elevating their quality of life and transforming lifestyles for the fully cashless society.

“We offer e-payment, digital lending, and e-insurance services through the Dolfin application that provide our customers with easy-to-use financial services. Since the launch of the application in 2019, the application now has over two million registered users. We consider these two prestigious awards we received as confirmation of our full dedication, and it also portrays the full willingness of Central JD Fintech to provide world-class digital financial solutions”.

Dolfin is the first application in Thailand to employ e-KYC
Dolfin is Thailand’s first e-wallet application to use e-KYC (electronic know-your-customer) for user identification verification throughout the registration process, combining the capabilities of face recognition and optical character recognition (OCR) technology to ensure the highest level of security. Precise face recognition and OCR technologies are applied to ensure complete confidence in the platform’s security while also allowing for a much friendlier user experience during the sign-up process – both created and optimized to meet actual usage circumstances in Thailand. The Bank of Thailand’s regulatory sandbox has passed and certified this industry-revolutionizing technique for public use.

Customers can successfully become Dolfin Wallet users and enjoy the secure and convenient e-wallet and e-payment services with just two simple steps for ID card scan and face scan. Customers’ information will be securely validated against a trusted government database, and their identity will be confirmed using biometrics recognition technology.

The only Thai e-wallet with open-loop merchant networks
Dolfin Wallet, with its goal of providing the finest e-payment experience to its users, offered a variety of payment alternatives, including close-loop with Dolfin’s own merchants and open-loop via the PromptPay infrastructure, which has over 6 million payment points. Since early 2021, Dolfin Wallet has also been authorised by the Bank of Thailand to allow users who have completed e-KYC to make payments at PromptPay acceptance locations around the country without having to physically validate their ID card using a card reading device, as was previously required.

Moreover, Dolfin Wallet, the first e-wallet operator in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia, debuted its payment by QR credit card with VISA and Mastercard in September 2021. Users of Dolfin Wallet would be able to make e-payments with their credit cards without having to carry their actual cards to numerous QR credit card acceptance sites. Furthermore, they will be able to obtain all perks from the card issuer in the same way as they would if they used their physical credit card.

Dolfin’s digital lending products, namely Dolfin Money, use advanced big data analytics to develop an information-based credit underwriting model that provides a fast and simple digital lending platform where an applicant does not need to provide any documents, either physically or electronically, and the loan approval can be done in a matter of minutes using the pre-active approval approach. Dolfin Money was established in July 2020 as a cash loan option as well as a ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ option to meet the needs of the applicant.

In May 2021, Dolfin platform also launched digital insurance brokerage service, namely Dolfin Insure, to offers new experience to purchase insurance with fully digital process which Dolfin customers will be offered preliminary instant-protection with the reasonable premium price by risk-based pricing model through AI and big data analytic that relevant with multiple driving behavior factors and car insurance claim history.

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According to Ascend, it will use the funds to expand its digital financial services ranging from digital lending and digital investment to cross-border remittances in Southeast Asia. It will also use the funds to grow its e-wallet application TrueMoney Wallet.

Tanyapong Thamavaranukupt, co-President of Ascend Money has revealed to the media that its users have grown from 17 million in early 2021 to 20 million to date in Thailand.

“The growth in e-payment suggests changing consumers’ spending habits as Southeast Asia moves toward a digital economy and a cashless society.”

“Apart from e-wallet, we are an agent-based payment and remittance service provider. Since last year, we’ve also rolled out TrueMoney Wallet for agent [networks] and migrated our offline agent to the online platform, which would help enhance and digitise their operations.”

Earlier this month, Indonesia-based fintech firm Xendit has raised around $150 million in its Series C funding round, valuing the company over the $1 billion mark and earning it the coveted unicorn status. The funding round for Xendit was led by Tiger Global Management. Other investors that also participated include returning investors Accel, Amasia and Goat Capital.

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The startup will use the funds to enhance its technologies and simultaneously improve its product offerings. By doing so, Synqa hopes to gain an advantage in expanding its footprint in the fintech area.

The funding round for Synqa was led by Siam Commercial Bank’s venture capital subsidiary SCB 10X and Tokyo-listed asset manager Sparx Group.

Other investors such as  Toyota Motor’s financial arm Toyota Financial Services, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., SMBC Venture Capital, and Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance, also participated in the funding round, Nikkei reported.

Jun Hasegawa, founder, and chief executive of Synqa, said that he sees a lot of opportunities in accelerating digital payments and digital transformation for enterprises.

“Despite these challenging times, I see a lot of opportunities in accelerating digital payments and digital transformation for enterprises. This funding will accelerate the development of quality products and services by our subsidiaries to better connect people, businesses, and society. I strongly believe technologies and innovation are crucial to building a more accessible financial infrastructure,” he told the media.

The Bangkok-based startup, which was formerly known as Omise Holdings, offers payments services to online and offline merchants in Thailand, Japan, and Singapore. It also runs Ethereum-based money transfer tool OMG Network.

Synqa’s platform allows websites to complete transactions without sending shoppers elsewhere. Reportedly, its lists of clients in Thailand include McDonald’s, duty-free retailer King Power, the country’s second-largest mobile carrier True Corp. and hospitality giant Minor International.

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Investors who took part in the funding round for Digio includes Thailand-based interbank payments provider PCC, Beacon Venture Capital, and Private Equity Trust for SME Growing Together 2.

According to Digio, the funds will also help the firm to expand its capacity to provide payment technology to financial institutions and contribute to bolstering Thailand’s rapidly growing digital payments infrastructure.

Digio founder and chief executive officer Nopphorn Danchainam told the media, “We feel highly privileged to have long-standing trust from PCC and the major financial institutions in Thailand, and today’s investment will allow us to deliver a broader array of payment services to institutions and consumers alike.”

The Bangkok-based firm provides turnkey payment solutions, including credit/debit card processing and e-wallets for financial institutions in its home markets and countries such as Japan, Malaysia, and Myanmar. Digio’s platform enables small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to accept card payments — particularly by enabling transactions, payments, and signatures to be processed through smartphones.

Established in 2012, Digio was awarded the Payment Facilitating Services (PFS) licence by the Bank of Thailand (BOT) earlier this year.

Last month South Korea-based consumer loan provider KB Kookmin Card revealed that it had signed a deal with Thailand-based personal loan provider J Fintech to acquire a controlling 50.99 percent stake in the company for $20 million.

Mobile phone distributor Jay Mart, the parent company of J Fintech currently holds a 95.65 percent stake in its fintech arm.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

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In the Series A funding round for the Bangkok-headquartered Thai fintech startup Lightnet, UOB Venture Management was among the top three investors, with the other two being Hanwha Investment and Securities and Seven Bank.

Apart from the trio, other investors in the fray included the likes of Singapore-based Hopeshine Ventures, Signum Capital and Du Capital. Uni-President Asset Holdings and HashKey Capital.

Chatchaval Jiaravanon, whose family operates the Charoen Pokphand Group, among Thailand’s largest organisations, is one of the co-founders of Lightnet. The other founder is Tridbodi Arunanondchai, an erstwhile investment banker.

Lightnet said that all 7-Eleven retail shops in Japan and around 69,200 convenience outlets across the globe are owned by investor Seven Bank.

Over 9,000 7-Eleven and Starbucks across Taiwan, China and the Philippines belong to another investor Uni-President Asset Holdings, which is the investment subsidiary of Uni-President Enterprises Corp.

The Bangkok-based start-up offers remittance services by utilising blockchain and linking the existing financial systems with its network of cash agents, which refers to places that can dole out cash, such as convenience outlets.

It seeks to substitute the informal banking and Swift processes currently employed by banks, and it will primarily focus on Southeast Asian expatriate workers who don’t possess bank accounts of their own as its customers.

The money generated from the fundraising will be deployed to augment Lightnet’s investment in the underlying blockchain technology on Stellar Network – the fintech’s blockchain partner, and to develop a financial mobility network.

Suvicha Sudchai, Chief Executive Officer of Lightnet said that the Thai fintech  startup’s core platform is ready and the first operation is expected in the initial quarter of 2020.

He added that the firm will collaborate with payment and remittance allies such as MoneyGram, Seven Bank, Yeahka and Ksher – from Japan, South Korea and various South-east Asian countries to guarantee an effective activation.

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