Malaysia-Based iMoney Raises $2M Series A To Help Consumers Compare Financial Services

Malaysia-Based iMoney Raises $2M Series A To Help Consumers Compare Financial Services Oct 24th 2013, 10:17, by Catherine Shu iMoney Group, a Malaysia-based financial comparison startup, announced that it has raised a $2 million Series A round led by Singapore-based venture firm Jungle Ventures. Other investors include ECONA AG, Rebright Partners, IMJ Fenox, Fenox Venture Capital, 500 Startups, Vogel Ventures and angel investor Lim Der Shing. iMoney's Series A comes less than five months after it received $500,000 in seed funding from Asia Venture Group Sdn Bhd (AVG). The company will use its new capital to accelerate growth in Malaysia and further its expansion in other markets. iMoney's online platform gives consumers a way to compare and apply for loans, car insurance, credit cards and other services from banking partners including OCBC, Maybank, AIA, CIMB, Alliance and AmBank. The incentive for banks includes the potential of reaching new customers at a lower cost than opening brick-and-mortar locations. iMoney says that it is currently referring $70 million a month in business to financial institutions. “At this point, iMoney is growing at double digits month-on-month, and while we're already the largest financial comparison business in the region, we want to further accelerate this,” said Lee Ching Wei, co-founder and Group CEO at iMoney, in a statement. “This round of funding will allow us to continue to invest in user acquisition and to strengthen our operational teams on the ground, with the aim of bringing iMoney to the next level.” In addition to its Series A, iMoney also announced that it is appointed former CIMB, Citi and RBS senior banker Bruno Araujo as its co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer. Araujo says he excited to join iMoney because of growth opportunities in Malaysia's financial services industry. “In Malaysia alone there are about $33 billion of new home loans written every year and less than 0.1% of that is originated online. If you consider the other countries where iMoney has a leading presence, like Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand etc., then we're talking about a $100 billion market,” said Araujo.