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ASEAN FinTech funding grew more than 10-fold in past decade, GenAI and Quantum Computing to power new era: FinTech in ASEAN 2024 report

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Optimism in ASEAN’s FinTech scene as Singapore and Thailand draw top funding this year.

SINGAPORE, Nov. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Funding for Financial Technology (FinTech) in ASEAN has surged more than 10 times since 2015[1], growing at an exponential rate compared to global FinTech funding. This fuelled growth in sectors such as payments and alternative lending, and is poised to advance further with the increasing prevalence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and quantum computing. Jointly launched by UOB, PwC Singapore and the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) today, the roundup edition of FinTech in ASEAN 2024 report: A decade of innovation report recaps the evolution of FinTech in the region from 2015 to 2024.

Weathering through the funding winter in recent years on the back of uncertain macroeconomic climate, FinTech investments in the six biggest ASEAN economies[2] are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. ASEAN FinTech funding totalled US$1.41 billion in the first three quarters of this year (9M24), constituting four per cent of global FinTech funding, a one percentage point growth year-on-year (yoy). Though the region’s total funding was down by less than one per cent yoy, it was a significant recovery from the 71 per cent fall seen in 9M23 against 9M22.

Ms Janet Young, Managing Director and Group Head, Channels & Digitalisation and Strategic Communications & Brand, UOB, said, “FinTechs have evolved from a disruptive force to an essential component of financial ecosystems over the past decade. ASEAN’s FinTech sector continues to show promise, supported by improving macroenvironment and emergence of advanced technologies. UOB has been a long-term supporter of FinTechs and will continue to look for opportunities for collaboration to bring innovation and better solutions to our customers and stakeholders across ASEAN.”

The latest report showed regional FinTechs garnering more than US$20 billion in investments over the last decade, with close to 1,500 deals. FinTechs in payment and alternative lending sectors were the most sought, making up more than half of ASEAN’s total funding at US$6.5 billion and US$4.1 billion respectively.

Ms Wong Wanyi, FinTech Leader, PwC Singapore, said, “ASEAN’s FinTech sector is progressively making waves in global waters, demonstrating resilience and adaptability amidst macroeconomic uncertainties. Despite being in the game with larger economies, ASEAN’s FinTechs have steadily gained long-term investor confidence over the last decade. Going forward, the growing impact of quantum computing and GenAI will continue to push new frontiers in financial services, offering faster, more secure and intelligent solutions. We are at the epicentre of a transformation, where these advancements will not only drive unprecedented growth, but also firmly establish ASEAN as a global FinTech innovation leader.”

Mr Shadab Taiyabi, President, Singapore FinTech Association, said, “It is encouraging to see that ASEAN remains as a vibrant hub for FinTech innovation, with the sector demonstrating resilience and adaptability in the face of ongoing volatility. The FinTech ecosystem in Singapore continues to attract robust funding, driven by strong regulatory support and opportunities for cross-border collaboration. Looking ahead, SFA remains committed to foster the growth of the FinTech ecosystem while creating new opportunities for FinTechs to leverage emerging technologies and strategic partnerships that will further strengthen the ecosystem.”

The next decade of innovation

With the US Federal Reserve (Fed)’s recent interest rate cut in September 2024, the FinTech industry will likely receive a shot in the arm. Lower interest rates typically lead to cheaper funding, greater investor appetite from venture capital and higher valuations, ultimately improving exit opportunities. When Fed last cut interest rates in third quarter 2019 and further slashed it to a historical low during 2020 to 2021, ASEAN’s FinTech funding spiked and peaked at US$6.36 billion in 2021, the region’s highest amount in the past decade.

Beyond better macroeconomic environment, FinTechs worldwide are set to enter a new era catalysed by two advanced technologies – GenAI and quantum computing – which may potentially reshape the financial ecosystem significantly.

In 9M24, global funding injected into the GenAI sector increased by 38 per cent yoy. GenAI can significantly enhance customer experience in the FinTech sector with innovative personalised financial advice and products, improved fraud detection and risk management.

Another promising FinTech sector is quantum computing, which enables financial institutions to develop innovation solutions beyond boundaries of classic computers. It has the potential to revolutionise the FinTech sector in areas such as optimising investment strategies and enhancing security through advanced cryptography algorithms.

Singapore and Thailand lead ASEAN FinTech investments in 2024

Singapore snared the lion’s share of FinTech investments in ASEAN for the 10th consecutive year, securing more than half of the region’s total funding with US$745 million in 9M24. Singapore also topped the number of deals at 62 across nine FinTech categories. The Lion City housed the most FinTech unicorns in ASEAN since 2015, with six out of 16 unicorn firms. Notable FinTech unicorns include Advance Intelligence Group, the parent company of several AI financial service platforms including buy-now-pay-later platform Atome; and NIUM, a cross-border payments firm that has expanded globally and continued to raise a series E funding this year.

Thailand to rose to second place, ahead of last year’s runner up Indonesia, with US$341 million or 24 per cent of ASEAN’s Fintech funding in 9M24, backed by closing two mega deals[3].  Singapore and Thailand accounted for 76 per cent of total FinTech funding and close to 68 per cent of funding deals in ASEAN in 9M24, having clinched the only four mega deals in the region.

Two of the mega deals are seed- and early-stage[4] investments of more than US$240 million, boosting young FinTechs to make up more than 60 per cent of total funding in ASEAN. This reflects investors’ willingness to bet on budding innovation, and ASEAN is still seen as a fertile ground for new FinTechs to thrive with favorable long-term growth prospects, building the region’s growth in FinTech for the past decade.

The FinTech in ASEAN 2024: A decade of innovation report was launched at Singapore FinTech Festival today. For the full report, please visit go.uob.com/fintech2024.

[1] 9M15 vs 9M24
[2] Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
[3] Funding deals of more than US$100 million. The two mega deals from Thailand are: Payment FinTech firm Ascend Money with US$195 million and financial blockchain firm GuildFi with US$140 million.
[4] Seed investments refer to seed and angel funding; Early-stage investments refer to Series A or B funding.

– Ends –

About UOB

UOB is a leading bank in Asia. Operating through its head office in Singapore and banking subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, UOB has a global network of around 500 offices in 19 countries and territories in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. Since its incorporation in 1935, UOB has grown organically and through a series of strategic acquisitions. Today, UOB is rated among the world’s top banks: Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA- by both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

For nearly nine decades, UOB has adopted a customer-centric approach to create long-term value by staying relevant through its enterprising spirit and doing right by its customers. UOB is focused on building the future of ASEAN – for the people and businesses within, and connecting with, ASEAN.

The Bank connects businesses to opportunities in the region with its unparalleled regional footprint and leverages data and insights to innovate and create personalised banking experiences and solutions catering to each customer’s unique needs and evolving preferences. UOB is also committed to help businesses forge a sustainable future, by fostering social inclusiveness, creating positive environmental impact and pursuing economic progress. UOB believes in being a responsible financial services provider and is steadfast in its support of art, social development of children and education, doing right by its communities and stakeholders.

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11:11 Systems Announces Strategic Partnership with Cato Networks to Deliver SASE Solution for Distributed Enterprises

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New Managed Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution combines SD-WAN, cloud-native networking and security capabilities with 11:11’s connectivity, cyber resilience and cloud expertise

SYDNEY, July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — 11:11 Systems, a leading managed infrastructure solutions provider, today announced the global availability of its 11:11 Managed Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution and a new strategic partnership with Cato Networks.

11:11 Managed SASE is a fully managed secure connectivity solution leveraging Cato Networks AI-native network security platform. This solution brings together intelligent SD-WAN, cloud-delivered security and global connectivity into a single offering. It enables organisations to simplify and secure access across branch offices, data centres, users and cloud environments, reducing complexity without sacrificing performance or control.

Built on the Cato Networks cloud-native SASE platform, 11:11 Managed SASE combines zero trust network access (ZTNA), firewall as a service (FWaaS), secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), advanced threat protection and centralised visibility into a unified managed experience. 11:11 also delivers 24x7x365 monitoring and support, incident management integration and operational accountability to help customers limit vendor sprawl, increase agility and free internal teams to focus on higher-value priorities.

The offering is backed by 11:11’s broader networking, cloud and cyber resilience capabilities. Through its global backbone, carrier-agnostic connectivity options and integrated portfolio spanning cloud, backup, disaster recovery and security services, 11:11 gives customers a practical path to modernise network and security architecture while strengthening resilience across the business.

“Enterprises are under pressure to support users, applications and locations that are more distributed than ever, while limiting complexity and improving security,” said Justin Giardina, CTO, 11:11 Systems. “Our Managed SASE solution provides customers with a unified approach to modernising networking and security, along with the visibility, support and flexibility they need to thrive in a rapidly changing environment.”

According to Karl Soderlund, global channel chief, Cato Networks, “As enterprises move beyond fragmented legacy networking and security stacks, they need a simpler way to gain visibility, context and control across hybrid work environments and reduce the operational burden on IT. Through our partnership, we can address these challenges head on and deliver end-to-end visibility and protection in a single service built for the reality of modern work.”

The joint offering is well suited for distributed enterprises, multi-site organisations, hybrid workforce initiatives, SD-WAN refreshes, security modernisation efforts and businesses with limited IT resources. 11:11 meets customers where they are by supporting existing environments, simplifying multi-vendor operations and serving as a single provider accountable for network, security, cloud and data integration.

This partnership expands 11:11’s Network as a Service portfolio and follows Forrester’s inclusion of 11:11 Systems in its report, “The Secure Access Service Edge Services Landscape, Q1 2026.”

About 11:11 Systems

11:11 Systems is a managed infrastructure solutions provider that empowers customers to modernise, protect and manage mission-critical applications and data, leveraging 11:11’s resilient cloud platform. Learn more at www.1111Systems.com and follow 11:11 on LinkedIn.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/1111-systems-announces-strategic-partnership-with-cato-networks-to-deliver-sase-solution-for-distributed-enterprises-302830322.html

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Crowell & Moring Expands Financial Services Group with Former UBS Bank USA General Counsel Cristina Diaz

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NEW YORK, July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Crowell & Moring has added Cristina Diaz, former executive director and general counsel of UBS Bank USA, and most recently head of legal for UBS’s U.S. Remediation Management Office, to the firm’s Financial Services Group as senior counsel in New York. Diaz brings more than two decades of in-house counsel and law firm experience in bank regulation, compliance, and risk management.

At Crowell, Diaz will counsel banks, fintechs, and digital assets companies on a broad range of bank regulatory matters, including charters and licensing, permissible activities, capital requirements, regulatory enforcement, M&A, and corporate governance. She will also counsel clients navigating the intersection of traditional banking and emerging financial services, including digital assets companies seeking to acquire or establish national banks, and banks exploring partnerships with fintechs and digital assets firms.

At UBS, Diaz advised on the firm’s most pressing regulatory matters, including most recently UBS Bank USA’s charter conversion from a Utah industrial bank to an OCC national bank and key compliance remediations. This work gave Diaz extensive experience navigating relationships with state and federal financial regulators. Earlier in her career, Diaz spent eight years at Davis Polk & Wardwell advising U.S. and foreign banks on bank regulatory matters, M&A, and capital markets transactions.

“Cristina is a highly experienced, solution-oriented attorney who brings deep knowledge in the bank regulatory space. She will be an enormous asset to the firm’s growing regulatory and transactional offerings to banks, digital assets businesses, and fintechs,” said Carlton Greene, Co-Chair of Crowell’s Financial Services Group.

“I am delighted to join Crowell & Moring and integrate my bank regulatory experience with the firm’s nationally-recognized digital assets practice. As traditional banking and emerging financial technologies continue to evolve, clients need actionable and sophisticated legal counsel. Crowell offers the collaborative platform to help institutions successfully execute their growth and compliance strategies,” said Diaz.

Diaz received her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was a member of the New York University Law Review, and received her B.A., summa cum laude, from New York University. She is fluent in Spanish.

About Crowell & Moring LLP
Crowell & Moring is an international law firm with operations in the United States, Europe, and MENA. Drawing on significant government, business, industry, and legal experience, the firm helps clients capitalize on opportunities and provides creative solutions to complex regulatory and policy, litigation, transactional, and intellectual property issues. The firm is consistently recognized for its commitment to pro bono service, as well as its comprehensive programs and initiatives to advance the professional and personal development of all members of the Crowell community.

Media Contact:
Email: prteam@crowell.com

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Quantinuum and SoftBank Corp. Publish Joint White Paper on Scaling Practical Quantum Computing Use Cases Toward the Fault-Tolerant Era

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The companies have published a joint white paper mapping commercially relevant quantum computing use cases in quantum chemistry and graph analytics to Quantinuum’s hardware roadmap.The paper provides a framework for assessing how advances in quantum hardware and algorithms, could affect when practical industrial applications become feasible.SoftBank Corp. and Quantinuum will use the roadmap to inform their exploration of future quantum AI data center services and related business models.

TOKYO and BROOMFIELD, Colo., July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Quantinuum (NASDAQ: QNT) and SoftBank Corp. (“SoftBank”) today announced the publication of “Quantum Computing Frontiers,” a joint white paper that maps two commercially-relevant quantum computing application areas against Quantinuum’s hardware roadmap. The analysis examines how advances in quantum hardware and algorithms could affect when these applications become practical for industrial use.

The paper focuses on two representative application domains that SoftBank is actively using Quantinuum’s systems to research: quantum chemistry for new materials discovery and energy research, and topological data analysis for large-scale graph analytics, including for telecommunications fraud detection. The authors anchor their assessment of the scalability of these two application areas against Quantinuum’s published hardware roadmap, examining how projected advances in hardware capabilities and algorithms may enable the commercial readiness of future industrial applications.

Building on this use-case roadmap, the paper also examines how quantum computing, AI, and high-performance computing could be integrated into future computing infrastructure. It considers how progress across successive hardware generations could inform future quantum AI data center services and related business models, a key focus of the Quantinuum and SoftBank partnership announced last year.

“The key takeaway of this study is that organizations do not need to wait for large-scale, fault-tolerant systems to explore where quantum computing can begin creating value,” said Duncan Jones, General Manager, Applications Group at Quantinuum. “By using today’s systems to develop, benchmark and refine applications in areas such as quantum chemistry and graph analytics, enterprises can build the technical and operational readiness needed for the next era of quantum-enabled computing.”

“The question is no longer whether quantum computing may deliver value, but rather which problem classes become executable at which stage of hardware maturity,” said Ryuji Wakikawa, Senior Vice President & CTO at SoftBank Corp. “However, we believe progress in hardware must be complemented by equally strong developments in quantum algorithms and the integration of quantum systems with AI and high-performance computing.”

The white paper discusses illustrative scenarios describing how representative applications, technology maturity, and potential market opportunities may evolve over time under stated assumptions. The analysis provided in the paper is intended to provide a conceptual framework for understanding potential market evolution and does not represent financial guidance or forecasts. These analyses are intended to support discussion of future technology development and should not be interpreted as commitments regarding commercialization, infrastructure investment, products, services, or financial performance.

The full white paper is available to download on the SoftBank and Quantinuum websites.

About SoftBank Corp.

Guided by the SoftBank Group’s corporate philosophy, “Information Revolution – Happiness for everyone,” SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) operates telecommunications and IT businesses in Japan and globally. Building on its strong business foundation, SoftBank Corp. is aiming to activate the potential of AI across its businesses and drive implementation in line with its “Activate AI for Society” growth strategy. While further growing its telecom business, SoftBank is expanding its AI computing infrastructure and AI and Cloud service businesses with the aim of becoming a provider of Next-generation Social Infrastructure. To learn more, please visit https://www.softbank.jp/en/corp/

About Quantinuum

Quantinuum (NASDAQ: QNT) is a leading quantum computing company offering a full-stack platform designed to make quantum computing deployable in real-world environments. The company has commercially deployed multiple generations of quantum systems built on the well-established QCCD architecture, which it has implemented with novel designs and capabilities to achieve the industry’s highest accuracy levels based on average two-qubit gate fidelity.[1] Quantinuum has active engagements with market leaders across pharmaceuticals, material science, financial services, and government and industrial markets. The company has a global workforce of approximately 700 employees, including top scientists and researchers. Over 70% of its technology team holds PhDs or Master’s degrees. Quantinuum’s headquarters is in Broomfield, Colorado, with additional facilities across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Qatar, and Singapore.

For more information, please visit www.quantinuum.com.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts. The words “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “future,” “will,” “seek,” “foreseeable,” the negative version of these words, or similar terms and phrases are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on certain assumptions and assessments made by our management in light of their experience and their perception of historical trends, current economic and industry conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. The forward-looking statements included in this release are also subject to a number of material risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to economic, competitive, governmental, and technological factors affecting our operations, markets, products, services and prices. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for Quantinuum to predict all such factors. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, Quantinuum does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

 

[1] As of December 31, 2025.

SOURCE Quantinuum

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