Advance Intelligence Group Acquires Singapore-Based Fintech Startup Jewel Paymentech
Advance Intelligence Group, a Singapore-based unicorn tech start-up, announced its acquisition of Jewel Paymentech, a financial risk technology company specialising in merchant due diligence and fraud and risk management solutions for financial services and payments industry.
Jewel Paymentech (“Jewel”) has an established track record of onboarding businesses and monitoring of fraudulent transactions, specifically in Know Your Business (KYB) and Know Your Transaction (KYT) monitoring. It also provides automated solutions to large merchants such as marketplaces, to identify illegal and counterfeit goods as part of their KYC process. With a presence in Singapore and Malaysia, Jewel’s technology is used by the region’s largest banks, fintechs and payment networks. The Singapore-based company, named by SWIFT as one of Asia’s most promising fintech companies, was founded 8 years ago.
The acquisition of Jewel Paymentech for an undisclosed sum will strengthen Advance Intelligence Group’s capabilities in the Web3.0, fraud and risk management space. Jewel’s 30-member team based in Singapore and Malaysia, including its senior leadership team, will join the Group. Jewel will remain as an independent business entity under the Group’s enterprise business unit, ADVANCE.AI, with CEO Sean Lam, co-founders Lee Wooi Siang and Sandra Cheim, and CIO Goh Ser Yoong joining its senior leadership team.
Founded in 2016, Advance Intelligence Group is one of the largest independent technology startups headquartered in Singapore. The Group has built an ecosystem of AI-powered, credit-enabled products and services, including Asia’s leading Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform Atome, SaaS enterprise solutions provider ADVANCE.AI, and omnichannel ecommerce merchant services platform Ginee.
Umair Javed, Senior Vice President, M&A and Corporate Development at Advance Intelligence Group, said, “We’ve spent a lot of time with Jewel’s founding team and we’re very excited to add their capabilities, talents and leadership team to our Group. Their established track record in merchant due diligence, transaction and fraud monitoring complements our own capabilities and offers our existing clients and partners in our ecosystem an even fuller suite of products and services.”
Sean Lam, CEO of Jewel Paymentech, said, “Being part of the broader Advance Intelligence Group ecosystem will not only serve our current clients better, but will allow us to tap on deep investor relationships, capital and technology base. Our staff will also be able to further develop their career journey, so this coming together of our two companies is a win-win for both our existing team and client base.”
Dong Shou, CEO of ADVANCE.AI, said, “We warmly welcome the addition of Jewel’s leadership team and staff. Adding Jewel’s KYB and KYT expertise to our existing set of digital identity, fraud detection and risk management solutions means we are now even better equipped to support our clients in their digital transformation journey as they navigate an ever-evolving regulatory, compliance and security landscape, both in Web2 and Web3.”
Both ADVANCE.AI and Jewel are also accredited by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA).
Edwin Low, Director of Enterprise and Ecosystem Development at IMDA, added, “This acquisition brings the merger of two innovative, high growth IMDA-accredited companies in the fintech and eKYx space. Collectively, there are complementary product synergies which can be offered to their enlarged global client base. This also bodes well for Singapore’s ecosystem as we see a much stronger and globally competitive entity resulting from this merger.”
