Singapore based Cocoon Capital recently announced a new US$20 million fund following its first US$7 million fund launched in 2016. The fund aims to bridge growing industry demands for more seed-stage funding in the region.“With the billions of dollars available in venture capital in the region, only a fraction is targeting seed-stage companies and Cocoon Capital seeks to help fill this gap”, said Will Klippgen, co-founder and Managing Partner at Cocoon Capital.

Vietnam’s strong economic growth in recent years has led to the flourishing of the nation’s digital economy. The country’s economy in 2017 was deemed to be one of the best performing in the region.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Indonesia’s financial services authority, Ororitas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen cooperation in fintech and to foster innovation in financial services between the two nations.

Fintech is taking over Indonesia. With a growing middle class and high internet penetration, fintech firms are mushrooming all over the country. In 2016, there were only around 50 firms operating in Indonesia and it is believe that there are more than 150 fintech firms running in the country right now. Many of the proponents for fintech are claiming that fintech will herald in a new era of banking, while sceptics are more cynical of the advantages that fintech could bring to consumers.

In the not so distant future, cross border transfer of money can be done with a few taps on your smartphone. Cash stored in virtual wallets and accessible via a secure smartphone application would make physical currency obsolete, while paving the way for digital cryptocurrencies. Such advancements fall under the wider web of financial technology or fintech for short.The fintech sector in Southeast Asia is currently facing a boom.

Spotlight on energyThis week, The ASEAN Post highlighted some challenges that ASEAN is facing in terms of deploying renewable energy and electrification throughout the region. As the region’s energy demands grows, countries such as Myanmar are moving forward in order to quench the thirst for electricity.

Bitcoin cryptocurrency has been receiving some bad press in Asia recently because of the lack of a central regulating authority for transactions. While Southeast Asian governments’ have their reservations about Bitcoin, they are remarkably interested in the underlying technology called blockchain.Breaking down the blockchainAt its most basic level, a blockchain is just a data structure combining different technologies into one, depending on an operator’s choice of configuration.

His words don't carry a fraction of Fed Chair Janet Yellen's power to move markets; nor do his actions possess the strength of Haruhiko Kuroda's balance-sheet maneuvers at the Bank of Japan.

Go-Jek, Indonesia’s biggest ride-hailing service, agreed to acquire three local financial-technology companies, underscoring its ambition to become the dominant player in the country’s nascent digital-payments industry.The deals bring together Kartuku, Indonesia’s largest offline payments-processing company; Midtrans, the nation’s top online-payment gateway; and Mapan, a local community-based saving and lending network, Go-Jek said in a statement Friday.Collectively, Go-Jek and the three comp

Southeast Asia has shown itself to be one of the most rapidly advancing regions in the world.With a booming population of 644 million (and rising), half of whom are internet and social media users, you would expect that most people around the region would have access to most of the basic necessities required by a modern life. You may find it surprising, then, that some estimates point out that barely a quarter of the region’s population have a bank account.