iMoney is taking over Asia one country at a time, and its next target is Thailand

iMoney, a Malaysian startup, is a free online personal finance platform that helps users make comparisons between loans, credit cards, savings, and other banking services. It aims to make these complex products simpler and easier to choose between, and promises users a neutral, unbiased viewpoint from which to judge different banks’ services.

In June, it raised funds from Asia Venture Group (AVG). Since then, it has expanded beyond Malaysia to five other countries; Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Hongkong, and Indonesia. According to Lee Ching Wei, iMoney’s co-founder and group CEO, these expansions all happened within a week.

Thailand is the first iMoney office outside of Malaysia

Tech in Asia got to sit down with Ching during his visit to Bangkok last week. When asked about the funding, Ching explained:

Thailand is one of the main countries we want to focus the investment in. Thus, Thailand is the first office outside of Malaysia for iMoney.

The company explains that this makes sense in terms of opportunity, population, and internet behavior. The number of Thai netizens is greater than the whole Malaysian population, added Ching. The next office that iMoney will be opening is in Hong Kong.

Regional problems

Ching also explained the reason he started iMoney:

I came back to Malaysia from Australia. I had no bank accounts or credit cards. That’s when I started doing my research and found the problems; there was no website acting as a hub to host all the bank info. You have to visit each bank’s website individually. It was a pain.

That’s when he decided he wants to create something to help people compare and choose bank services. He sees this as a regional problem.

Ching added:

More and more people expect this service. Comparisons have been helpful. We talked to banks. They were very surprised to see their competitors’ numbers on our site. They use our site to improve their business. In Malaysia, we know for fact that banks use us to compare with competitors.

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