Fatfish expands further into South East Asian BNPL market with majority interest in Malaysia’s Pay Direct
Pay Direct operates payment gateway technology QlicknPay which enables financial institutions to rapidly onboard merchants.
Technology venture capital firm Fatfish Group (ASX: FFG) has announced it will acquire a majority interest in Malaysian payment gateway provider Pay Direct Technology Sdn Bhd in a $470,000 deal set to advance Fatfish’s regional buy now pay later (BNPL) strategy.
Fatfish will call on its working capital to fund the cash consideration required to gain a 55% strategic stake in Pay Direct, which operates fully integrated payment gateway technology suite QlicknPay.
The suite allows financial institutions to rapidly set up and offer online payment gateway services and enables retail merchants to accept direct payments via Mastercard, Visa, PayPal and FPX (an online payment network sponsored by Malaysian Central Bank).
QlicknPay technology is currently used by top-tier South East Asian financial institutions including the multinational OCBC Bank (Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation).
Another Pay Direct client is Public Bank, ranked sixth largest bank in the region by assets.
Pay Direct processes approximately $32 million worth of transactions per month and $380 million per year from more than 500 merchants.
Impactful synergies
Fatfish said the acquisition would have “impactful synergies” on the rollout of its BNPL services across South East Asia.
“The acquisition of this strategic stake is in line with [our] plan to further develop our fintech businesses in [the region]”, the company said.
“We see tremendous synergies between our BNPL businesses and Pay Direct, allowing strategic access to online merchants and financial institutions which could be partners to [our] BNPL services.”
Other acquisitions
The Pay Direct transaction follows Fatfish’s $870,000 majority equity purchase in Malaysia’s Forever Pay Sdn Bhd announced a fortnight ago.
Forever Pay has a money lending licence issued by the Malaysian government, allowing it to conduct financing business for consumers and corporates including retail BNPL services.
The licence is considered key to advancing rollout and launching retail BNPL services in South East Asia.
In December, Fatfish boosted its 58.8% stake in Singapore-based financing platform SmartFunding by a further 19.9%, providing the foundation for its regional BNPL rollout.
The company said it would begin with an initial launch in Singapore before advancing its BNPL offerings further in the region.