KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Boost, the regional full spectrum fintech arm of Axiata with its merchant business-to-business (B2B) wallet, has the capacity to assist micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to digitalise their business operations.
Boost group chief executive officer Sheyantha Abeykoon said that the company has a long history of supporting MSMEs in Malaysia and is proud to be the first to bring a merchant wallet to the market.
“As a digital company, Boost is in a better position to help these businesses.
“We have a long history of supporting MSMEs. Our initial focus was small merchants, whereby the primary means of payment acceptance was cash. The first thing we did was to help them go cashless and digital, with the Boost DuitNow QR codes back in 2017,” he told Bernama in an exclusive interview at Boost headquarters recently.
Sheyantha added that Boost then ventured into offering lending solutions, providing financing to these small businesses, and has disbursed almost RM2 billion worth of loans to date.
He also said that Boost is in the process of working with government agencies such as Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) in partnership to digitise merchants, offer them storefronts, and ways of digitally onboarding them.
“During the Covid-19 pandemic era, most businesses had to adapt and go digital but faced a lot of challenges in doing so as many MSMEs didn’t know how to (go about it).
“From what they told us, we need to provide a holistic end-to-end solution to help the MSMEs digitalise their business. The merchants need a starting point, which we felt was from the consumer wallet, and then built use cases around it for merchants to benefit from.
“Our users have had a wallet for the longest time, and we are proud to be the first to bring a merchant wallet to the market to help business owners digitise their business operations,” he said.
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, Sheyantha said that Boost is always planning to keep up with this development by offering more choices for its consumers.
“We’ve always tried to be at the forefront of trying new things. As technology evolves, so will businesses’ and customers’ wants and needs.
“I think we’ve always taken an active approach to look for the right product-market fit and identifying what technology will help each market segment to solve the problems that they encounter,” he said.
As Boost evolves into digital banking in Malaysia, he said that the company will bring a new frontier of innovation and to bring new services to the underserved MSMEs market segmentation.
Meanwhile, Boost Biz chief executive officer Eric Chong said Boost’s merchant wallet is built specifically to help MSMEs access digital payments and streamline business operations.
“With the merchant wallet, business processes are now more efficient as MSMEs have simplified access for things like paying their bills and suppliers directly from the wallet itself. They can also buy merchandise and have the option to cash out their funds.
“With the Instant Settlement feature, merchants no longer need to go to the bank to receive their funds and will now have cash readily available every time there’s a transaction or payment needed,” he said.
Chong said that the merchant wallet offers a huge wallet size for MSMEs.
“For merchants who register with an identity card, they will have a limit of RM30,000, whereas merchants who register using a business licence will have a limit of up to RM500,000.
“This ensures that merchants will have enough cash in hand to take care of all their business payments at all times,” he said.
Chong also mentioned how the merchant wallet has enabled the MSMEs easier access to Boost loans.
“MSMEs can apply for our loans directly through the Boost Biz app and have it credited straight into the merchant wallet. The application process takes only five minutes with a loan size between RM1,000 to RM100,000,” he added. — Bernama
