Payments fintech Instapay Technologies Sdn Bhd, an E-wallet and Mastercard issuer, today announced that it has raised USD 4.75 million (MYR 21.5 million) in Series A funding round. This round is led by Daiwa ACA APAC Growth I, a growth capital fund managed by ACA Investments, an investment management firm backed by Daiwa Securities Group, that focuses on companies in the growth stage in Southeast Asia, with participation from Spiral Ventures Asia Fund I, an early stage and digital tech focus venture capital fund managed by Spiral Ventures Pte. Ltd., and existing investors of Instapay.TOP2, a Singapore-based corporate finance advisory firm advised Instapay on this fundraise.

Instapay Technologies, started its market operations in Malaysia about two years ago as a banking alternative for low-income workers, providing e-wallets and Mastercard to unbanked migrant workers as a Payroll Solution. Founded with a vision to provide financial inclusion to the underserved customer segments, Instapay has grown rapidly and today services hundreds of corporates for payroll accounts for their migrant workers as well as a large base of retail customers. It enables corporates to pay salaries digitally to their workers’ Instapay e-wallet. Instapay has seen rapid customer adoption in its target segment and continues to be among the highest-rated e-wallet apps in Malaysia.

Instapay e-wallet enables workers to do digital cross-border remittance, bill payments, mobile top-ups etc. Instapay Mastercard is accepted globally at millions of Mastercard merchants and can be used for purchases as well as for ATM cash withdrawals. 

Rajnish Kumar, Co-founder and CEO, Instapay Technologies said, “We are delighted and honoured with the trust placed in us by our new and existing shareholders. We founded Instapay to better serve unbanked migrant workers and the companies that employ them, and we are glad that in our new investors we have found a common match for this mission. The new funding will enable us to further enhance our technology platforms and introduce innovative product features that we believe will be very useful for our customers. It will also enable us to geographically expand into new markets in South East Asia and the Middle East.” 

“Our investment in Instapay reflects our view that digital financial inclusion will grow exponentially over the next decade, especially in markets that have large unbanked foreign workers. We see corporates wanting to stop cash salary payments and move to digit salary payments that are transparent and compliant with local regulations. We believe that Instapay has the right technology platform, business model and the leadership team to emerge as a global market leader in this space.” – Hajime Adachi, Associate Partner of ACA Investments.

Commenting on the investment, Mr Ryusuke Hirota from Spiral Ventures said “We invest in startups in their early growth stage, who through their technology innovations are bringing a social change. We believe in the vision of Instapay to create a financially inclusive society where all workers have access to digital financial solutions.”