Krungsri adds funding for Omise fintech start-up

Sam Tanskul, managing director of Krungsri Finnovate said that this round of funding into Omise marks the second investment of Krungsri Finnovate this year and is also one of the biggest start-up investments made by a Thai financial institution’s corporate venture capital (CVC) arm.
“As a subsidiary of a leading financial institution, we have seen growth opportunities in online payment as well as a solid expansion of Omise’s transaction volume,” said Sam. “We also realised that opportunities abound for Omise to tap the full potential of e-commerce in Southeast Asia and offer the payment solutions across the region."
Sam added that with Omise’s expertise in online payment and blockchain technology (OmiseGO), Krungsri would accelerate its adoption of online payment technology. As part of a long-term plan, OmiseGO, a blockchain-based financial technology focusing on digital, real-time value transfers and payments, could potentially support the development of Krungsri’s digital products and services such as KMA, Di-wallet, and U-Choose, he said.
The completion of this deal brings together a strong strategic fit, enhancing each party’s respective strengths to support the growth of financial-technology innovations and the adoption of services across Southeast Asia. By leveraging Krungsri’s strong foothold in Thailand and MUFG’s global capabilities and connections in more than 50 countries around the world, this synergy represents another step in Omise’s journey to build on its foundation of payment services and underpin their base not only in Thailand, but also in other countries across the region, said Sam.
With this partnership, Omise will be able to help boost Krungsri’s payment business in Thailand by providing efficient end-to-end payment solutions and features, which encourage a better checkout performance and promote seamless commerce experiences.
Jun Hasegawa, CEO and founder of Omise and OmiseGO, said that the pace of innovation in the fintech space is speeding up. The deal is a great strategic fit for the company to be collaborating with financial institutions like Bank of Ayudhya and MUFG to build the infrastructure and tools which will help people and businesses live better financial lives, said Hasegawa.
“As we set out the ground works and continue to build the platform which will facilitate the future of open payments and value exchange, OmiseGO network is excited to leverage synergy of our partners and this new capital to continue to build our platform as well as scale our operations into countries across the Asia Pacific region.” 
Following its Series B round in 2016, this year Omise secured another US$25 million (Bt836 million) through an ICO for its blockchain subsidiary, OmiseGO. Omise’s desire to pioneer practical tech innovation led to the establishment of OmiseGO which is tasked with building the OmiseGO network, an Ethereum-based public blockchain that aims to enable financial service equity by radically decentralising value transfer and exchange.