Singaporean fintech startup 4xLabs secures $1.5m for global expansion

Photo credit: 4xLabs.

Singapore-based 4xLabs closed a pre-series A round worth US$1.5 million, it announced today.

Dymon Asia Ventures participated in the financing, following up on its earlier involvement in 4xLabs’ US$1 million seed round. There were also investments from newcomers, including Malaysia’s OSK Ventures International.

The fintech startup develops currency exchange software for financial services companies, as well as a currency exchange rate comparison tool for individual users.

“The cash foreign exchange market is a growth market, and we believe in the relevance of providing technology to the 100,000 money changers globally that create liquidity in these markets,” said Christiaan Kaptein, principal at Dymon Asia Ventures, in a statement.

OSK’s executive director Patrick Yee said that 4xLabs’ focus on accelerating fintech adoption in the regional foreign exchange community “stood out.” It is not the only player in this corner of the fintech space though. Kuala Lumpur-based CurrenSeek is one key competitor that also offers an app-based currency exchange rate comparison service.

Since launching in 2011, 4xLabs has released Get4x, a location-based exchange rate aggregator that lets travellers compare rates offered by nearby licensed money changers, rather than using official exchange rates provided by banks.

Get4x is currently available in 13 cities across territories including Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates. It also specifically targets tourism centers such as Bali, Pattaya, and Phuket.

More recently, the company launched Biz4x, a software platform that is linked to Get4x and includes live foreign exchange rates, a compliance database, and a point-of-sale system for managing transactions, customer records, and inventory. 4xLabs claims that Biz4x is “currently used by hundreds of money changers in more than 10 countries worldwide,” and that 40 percent of Singapore’s money changers had subscribed to the service within a year of its launch.

Expansion plans

4xLabs says it will use these latest investments to fund product development and global growth.“We are planning the launch of a number of innovations that we believe will transform the cash exchange market in terms of transparency and compliance for greater efficiency,” Angela Cheong, 4xLabs’ chief marketing officer, tells Tech In Asia. “However, we see it as an extension of the current Biz4x suite of services rather than a brand new product.”

According to Cheong, 4xLabs is focused on three key areas when it comes to future product development. These include improvement of the existing products’ core features, enhancing connectivity and growth opportunities for money changers and customers, and creating new services and product line extensions to benefit the 4xLabs platform’s existing community.

“Hundreds of non-bank financial institutions use our Biz4x platform every day to monitor foreign exchange rates and run their daily businesses,” says Cheong. “The value of our business lies in this unique community we have created, which serves as a launch platform for new services.”

In terms of geographical expansion, Cheong suggests the focus is likely to be on breaking into new cities in countries that 4xLabs already serves, particularly those that are key travel hubs. “For example, while we started off with Kuala Lumpur as our first Malaysian city, we quickly established that having rates for Johor Bahru would be ideal, due to the high number of queries and visitors heading into and out of the city,” she says.

Cheong also reports growing interest in 4xLabs’ offering from emerging markets in southern Africa, Latin America, some parts of Asia, and eastern Europe. “The question then becomes: How do we best capitalize on the market opportunities in these countries?,” she says. “That is something we will be looking closely at.”