In a recent interview with MYStartup, our co-founders Adrian Yap and Naysan Munusamy shared about the MoneyMatch journey and the challenges they faced along the way. Read on to know all about MoneyMatch beyond our products and services!
How it all started…
Naysan: Around 2014, me and Adrian were at a mamak, we were in a specific stage of our lives and career. We felt it was time to take a plunge to go out there and start a startup.
Adrian: We realized there was an opportunity whereby the adoption of the internet was getting much faster with millennials and new companies. Most startups in the west were using technology to provide financial services in a cheaper and more convenient manner.
What was the initial push?
Adrian: We have benefited greatly from the Cyberview Living Labs accelerator program in collaboration with WatchTower and Friends (WTF). It’s very easy to come up with an idea but realizing it into an actual corporation is a different thing altogether. Basically, they provided us with funding to get things running, reduce risks and as an incentive to get started. It was the first push that took us from being an idea to a proper organization.
Naysan: It’s also important to pick the right accelerator with a great mentor list that can really help you out. At the end of the day, the ecosystem plays a significant role in building and empowering startups. It’s not just about funding and grants, but also assistance in all aspects such as communication, technology, and business development.
How did MoneyMatch overcome the challenges?
Adrian: Regulations in Malaysia were a big part of the challenges that we faced, especially 8 years ago when a lot of aspects were not quite established. Another challenge was gaining the public’s trust. Being in the financial market, there are a lot of scams going on in Malaysia right now. So obviously being a technology player trying to sell financial services to the public was not easy in the beginning. But thankfully, by placing emphasis on improving our service quality, the public started to slowly trust us a lot more.
Naysan: Generally, it’s about digital adoption. Everybody’s got a smartphone and access to the internet, but how much do they utilize it beyond on social media? In the fintech business, it’s also about convincing the public to perform financial transactions provided by an unfamiliar, non-bank platform. So it boils down to trust issues and the lack of adoption—it took us a long time to fight that!
What’s in store for the future?
Naysan: The pandemic was a bit of a shifting point for us, it made life very difficult. However, as people adapted to the new normal and digital adoption started to grow, so did our user base. From then on, we knew very strongly that we could expand and ramp this up even across the region.
Now, with the Digital Banking license win, our numbers have been going strong over the past two years. With that being said, we’ll also be raising additional funds which we’ll be utilizing to support our expansion across South East Asia. On top of our current licenses in Hong Kong, Australia, Brunei and Singapore. We hope to make the country proud by bringing Malaysian Fintech solutions developed by 100% Malaysians to the global stage!
Thank you to MyStartup for featuring us on their ‘Get to Know’ series! To watch the full interview, visit their Youtube channel.
We hope you enjoyed and felt inspired reading about our startup journey. Stay tuned for more features on our blog and visit our website to learn more about Moneymatch!