SK Group’s headquarters in central Seoul (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — The energy and telecom conglomerate SK said its investment arm, SK South East Asia, has invested US$60 million in BigPay, Malaysia’ leading fintech firm.
The subsidiary of Malaysian low-cost carrier Air Asia Group offers a wide range of payment and remittance services in Malaysia and Singapore.
In particular, itis assessed as having strong competitiveness in the digital wallet area.
With this investment, SK secured the rights to participate in projects that BigPay carries out as a strategic partner, as well as the option to make an additional $40 million investment in the future.
SK plans to provide its artificial intelligence (AI) and data analysis know-how and fintech business expertise, aimed at dominating the Southeast Asian fintech market together with BigPay.
SK intends to expand the company’s business model towards including installment payment, loan and customer-tailored financial product mediation services as part of efforts to be able to provide ‘one-stop’ fintech services.
Malaysia has bright prospects for the fintech industry as its smartphone prevalence rate exceeds 80 percent and the volume of online transactions is growing rapidly every year, according to market research firm Statista.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
