Fincy, the money app that facilitates seamless and contactless currency exchange across Asia, announced today its foray into the Singapore market and the establishment of its global headquarters on the red dot. Led by GBCI Ventures, Fincy’s goal is to provide a usable and affordable alternative to existing financial services, starting with currency exchange and a multi-currency wallet. The expansion to Singapore serves as a strategic base for growth across Asia.
Fincy was founded in 2019 by co-founders Douglas Gan, Vanessa Koh and Lim Ming Wang. Frustrated with the unfavourable exchange rates and exorbitant transaction fees charged to beleaguered travellers, Gan and Koh, who were themselves frequent business travellers, set out to create a solution that would allow for seamless, more affordable currency exchanges and a way to store residual currencies after returning from trips.
An Alternative To Existing Currency Exchange Solutions. Leveraging secure financial infrastructure and round-the-clock customer support, the Fincy app allows users to top up their multi-currency wallet via local bank transfer and then perform seamless currency exchanges at the best possible rates and with transaction fees as low as 0%.
“Financial service providers typically charge much higher transaction fees. Fincy utilises modern distributed ledger technology to minimise the costs of currency exchange, even at lower volumes,” said Koh, Fincy Singapore CEO. “Ultimately, we want to democratise money management by giving users full control over their money.”
The multi-currency wallet can hold balances in all major currencies, which users can then transfer to other users and transact with Fincy’s growing merchant network in Asia.
Contactless Money. Fincy’s contactless approach to money is aligned with a new social reality where people have had to rapidly adopt technologies and practices to cope with restrictions on social contact, a de rigeur response to the worst global pandemic in the last century.
This contactless approach is already being utilised in Myanmar’s Yatai City, a pioneering smart city powered by the same Building Cities Beyond (BCB) blockchain protocol upon which Fincy is built. In Yatai City, Fincy is the exclusive provider of financial infrastructure to 40,000 residents. They can use the Fincy app to make purchases, perform transactions, receive salary and manage their money without the need for physical contact.
Fincy is also pioneering contactless mobile payments in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where it is a popular and fully licensed money app accepted at more than 700 merchants and used by over 40 companies for payroll.
Setting The Stage For Growth Across Asia. In 2020, Fincy has set its sights on expanding its current user base across Asia. Looking to take advantage of Singapore’s progressive regulatory environment for financial services, it has chosen Singapore as its headquarters to accelerate this next phase of expansion. The first order of business will be to finalise a funding round in the coming weeks.
“Establishing our headquarters in Singapore was a strategic decision for us. Having ventured out of Singapore for the past 2 years, it was time to return to our roots and continue our expansion into other countries in the region,” said Gan.
