Malaysian fintech, IIMMPACT raises US$2 mil from Sequoia India’s Surge

  • Has built one-stop financial service API platform, aiming for super-app status
  • Pivoted away from loyalty app thanks to engagement with Scaleup Malaysia

IIMMpact founders Alex Tan (seated 2nd left) and Alex Lee (seated 3rd left) with their team.

Malaysian-based fintech, IIMMPACT today announced US$2 million (RM8.3 million) in seed funding by Sequoia India’s Surge, a rapid scale-up program for startups in Southeast Asia and India. Iimmpact is Surge’s first startup founded and based in Malaysia.

The lack of technological sophistication in legacy institutions in Southeast Asia has resulted in companies, especially those providing e-wallet, banking and e-commerce services, spending huge amounts of time and effort integrating digital payment products and data one by one. This is resource-intensive and distracts them from their core business.

Founded in Dec 2017, Iimmpact provides a turnkey solution for businesses who want to offer payment services to their customers with just a few lines of code. Through its elegant API solution, businesses can rapidly launch a digital marketplace to make payments to over 170 billers. The solution also allows bill management for recurring payments and financial consolidation. Companies of any size can, with minimal effort, launch digital payment products for their customers, such as phone top-ups, utilities payment, gaming, transportation, corporate gifting, food & beverage vouchers and more.

With Iimmpact, any business can turn their app services into super-apps. “Despite the leaps we’ve seen towards the digital economy over the past few years, many developing markets in Southeast Asia are being held back – whether it is due to the lack of infrastructure, regulation or ease of access. The good news is that businesses in Southeast Asia are amazingly receptive to new technologies – which is why Iimmpact was created,” said Alex Tan, CEO and Co-Founder. With his strength in data analytics, Alex has had past stints at RMIT University, Macleay College, Adidas, and with Australian supermarket chain, Coles.

Companies that leverage Iimmpact’s API are able to grow exponentially, improve their customer retention, save significant time and resources, allowing them to focus on their core business. Traditionally, to launch new digital payment products, it will take an average of 3 to 6 months. Now by tapping on Iimmpact’s APIs, companies can add new products within days. In 2021 alone, Iimmpact processed over US$90 million in transaction value.

“Though our simple yet robust solution, companies have come to us, supercharged their digital journeys and found new opportunities for expansion,” adds Kelvin Lee, CTO and Co-Founder. “We’re excited to accelerate our product development with the new funds, grow our team and venture into new products and services for our customers.”

Kelvin had previously served as Head of Engineering at Circles.MD and as Chief Technology Officer at Malaysian mobility start, Moovby.

In 2020, Iimmpact was also announced as a Top 10 Company from ScaleUp Malaysia’s first cohort, which saw the company pivoting their business from a loyalty app to a one-stop payments and data aggregation API.

“Iimmpact’s pedigree traces to the type of technology companies that build great products upon key technical insights. In this case, Iimmpact’s API based payment system innovates by aggregating and connecting legacy systems to the growing new digital landscape that is poised for rapid growth in Asia,” said Andre Sequerah, Managing Partner of Scaleup Malaysia.

Iimmpact is part of Surge's sixth cohort of 20 companies that build fresher, smarter solutions to help consumers and businesses adapt to a changing world.

 
 
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