BigPay Raises up to US$100 Million in Financing from SK Group

BigPay, an airasia Digital portfolio company, has finalised up to US$100 million in financing from South Korean conglomerate, SK Group.

Founded in 2017 and present in both Malaysia and Singapore, BigPay's current offering includes a prepaid debit card which can be used to spend anywhere Visa or Mastercard is accepted, local and international money transfers, micro-insurance, bill payments and a budgeting tool.

BigPay has launched a series of products for its users focused on long-term financial health and accessibility.

“Our mission is to become a leading challenger bank across Southeast Asia,” said Salim Dhanani, CEO & Co-Founder of BigPay. “We’ve established ourselves in Malaysia as one of the leading providers of digital banking services, and we want to expand our product sets, along with growing the model to new markets. Thailand and the wider ASEAN is next, but we’ll be launching key products before that - with fully digital personal loans, transactional lending and an offering for mSMEs.”

This is the first time any portfolio company within airasia Digital has secured financing of this size.

Jung Kyu Kim, Chief Representative of SK Malaysia, said, “We are happy to be joining forces with BigPay as we’ve had a keen interest in fintech and digital banking for a long time. SK Group will be able to make a significant contribution to BigPay in both technical and consumer service aspects given our experience and resources.”

The deal comes a few weeks after BigPay announced its application for a digital banking license where it reiterated the commitment to build a connected financial future for Malaysian consumers and entrepreneurs.

AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes, said, “I am excited for this great partnership with SK Group and for their belief in BigPay’s mission to bring inclusivity to financial services. This is the first investment into one of our portfolio digital companies and a testament to our digital growth story - we don’t anticipate it being the last. SK Group is second to none when it comes to innovation and experience, so we truly believe they can share their expertise and know-how-to that this investment can mark the beginning of a new exciting digital banking era.”

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