2020-1-12 20:40 |
A Blockchain oriented startup dubbed ‘Lightnet’ has secured $31.2 million in Series A funding for scaling its network. The Thailand based firm was supported by big players in Asia’s Financial services space with United Overseas' UOB Venture Management leading the pack.
Lightnet’s blockchain solution targets the fast-growing Asian remittance market that has in the past faced cost and time constraints despite its trillion-dollar potential. The firm leverages Stellar network’s fundamentals for money transfer solutions under its existing products; SmartNet, LiquidNet and BridgeNet. Chatchaval Jiaravanon, the chairman at Lightnet, further emphasized on this niche;
“We launched Lightnet to offer low-cost and instantaneous financial inclusivity and mobility to the four billion lives across Asia Pacific — all powered by Stellar's fast, scalable, and sustainable blockchain technology,”
A Big Boys Favorite Blockchain FinTech in Asia?As mentioned earlier, Lightnet attracted big corporates in this latest funding round. Other companies which took part include; Hanwha Investment and Securities, Du Capital, Signum Capital, Hopeshine Ventures, HashKey Capital, Uni-President Asset Holdings and Seven bank. It is notable that these are among the largest conglomerates in Asia with UOB dominating Singapore’s market while Hanwha Investment is a Korean financial services giant.
Lightnet’s Goal to Replace SWIFTThe newly injected funds have since placed Lightnet in a better position to make bigger moves; the firm is looking to edge existing tech like SWIFT. Ideally, the payments solution by Lightnet will be implemented through smart contracts in order to integrate more fiat agents; this will be an improvement from the current underground banking avenues and other channels which are not as convenient.
According to Lightnet’s vice chairman, they are optimistic that annual transactional volumes within the ecosystem will have risen to $50 billion in a span of three years. The firm plans to integrate with some existing fiat payment solution entities operating in Asia; Ksher, Yeahka, Seven Bank and MoneyGram have been identified as potentials so far.
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