Singapore-based startup Coda Pay is bringing Bitcoin and alternative payment processing to South East Asian markets with its recent capital injection. The company has just announced it has raised $2 million USD to push its efforts forward.
Coda Pay Progressing to Leverage Asian Markets
Coda Pay is set to make its mark in Asian markets with new funding from lead investors, such as Golden Gate Ventures, the GMO Global Payment Fund, and Skype co-founder Toivo Annus.
The firm, who has made partnerships with significant online companies such as Huawei, UCWeb and Baidu, raised 2.3 million in funding back in 2013. Some investors, such as the Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, that participated in that round, also engaged in the most recent funding round.
The payment processing startup was founded in 2011 by Bobby Choi, Paul Leishman and Neil Davidson. The company believes it gives “unparalleled convenience” due to its reach of more than 100 million mobile subscribers.
Back in August of 2015, Coda Pay partnered with BitX to offer Bitcoin options for online transactions.
Credit card services in South East Asia cover less than 10 percent of the population, making Coda Pay’s service ripe for expansion. CEO and co-founder of Corda Pay Neil Davidson said the funding would be used to further progressive efforts, says:
We’re relatively capital efficient. That lets us take the money we need to build to the next level, which probably for us means profitability, and then see where we at.
Davidson details that the fresh capital will be used for expanding to newer territories. The firm initially concentrated on Indonesia, but now covers five more countries: the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. The CEO has explained the next focus will be on Taiwan, which has also been a hotspot for this type of technology.
Doing Quite Well In South East Asia
The startup tells TechCrunch that it is doing quite well, processing 17,000 transactions per day. Currently, it is working behind the scenes to strengthen its network, which faces a difficult payment processing infrastructure within the region.
Davidson explains that, originally, Coda Pay concentrated on working with carrier bill pay, but the mission has since expanded. The firm is now focused on streamlining many types of payment processing.
Davidson details:
We have spent the last couple of years building out a whole range of feature to handle other alternative payments to bridge the gap for customers who are online and have money to spend but don’t have a payment card.— Bank transfers, cash payments at retail stores, mobile wallets, bitcoin, pre-paid gaming cards — we aim to assemble these payment methods into one house.
Coda Pay seems to be on the fast track to providing fintech solutions to the Asian markets — and the $2 million will surely help. The company also has created CodaShop, which houses content from Amazon, Steam, and Skype, according to Davidson. The CEO revealed to TechCrunch that the shop accounts for a quarter of the company’s yearly revenue. Coda Pay seems very optimistic in regards to the company’s business prospects as it looks to broaden its feature service landscape and continues its global expansion in Asian countries ripe for financial technology.