
Malaysia’s Jirnexu receives $11m Series B
Malaysia-based financial technology start-up Jirnexu has received an $11 million Series B funding round led by Japan’s SBI Group.
Additional participation came from US-based SIG Asia Investments. It follows a $3 million Series A round in 2016 provided by DMP, Celebes Capital, NTT Docomo Ventures, Tuas Capital Partners, and PropertyGuru co-founder Steve Melhuish. Total funding to date is said to be $17 million.
The new capital will be used to ramp up work with banks and insurance companies with a view to covering the entire consumer personal finance market. Jirnexu also confirmed it was looking to hire senior talent that can drive expansion in technology innovation and financial service institution acquisition.
Jirnexu describes itself as Southeast Asia’s only full-stack fintech solutions provider and currently does business with at least 30 financial institutions in Malaysia alone. It claims to have achieved 100% year-on-year growth during 2017 and be in a position to repeat the performance this year. Its suite of products and services combines customer-facing interfaces with marketing and sales automation technology for various financial service providers.
The company was credited with launching Southeast Asia’s first chatbot for processing personal loans online in 2017. The product is touted as allowing businesses to engage with customers in their preferred messaging app and then assess and process their requests quickly and easily. It is currently being adopted by Maybank, Public Bank, AEON, UOB, and Japan Credit Leasing.
“SBI appreciates the complexity of financial services, with each vertical and product having its own potential for digital disruption,” Ryosuke Hayashi, CEO and managing director for SBI Ven Capital, said in a statement. “Jirnexu continues to demonstrate unique value in their goal to lead across all verticals and stages of the value chain—an exciting endeavor in one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile-first markets.”
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