SOFT Space Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Joel Tay and chief strategy officer Chris Leong have endured countless rejections before they finally secured US$31.5 million from a series B1 fundraising round.
It was reportedly the largest Series B raised by a Malaysian startup to date, and was achieved despite the global economic uncertainties.
They said the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, Bank Negara Malaysia, Malaysian Investment Development Authority and Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet) had been instrumental in making Soft Space what it was today.
"The 'Nos' had looked so daunting at the time but giving up was never an option. Whenever we came to that point where the rejections seemed a little overwhelming, we thought of the people who believed in and supported of us on this journey.
"Patience and perseverance are vital in this industry. Banks and regulatory bodies that oversee financial technology were very conservative back then. When we started the company in 2012, 'Cloud' was like a dirty word. It was extremely difficult to convince local bankers.
"In fact, our first customer was neither a Malaysian nor Singaporean company. It was Kasikornbank, one of Thailand's largest banks," said Tay.
Soft Space's customers now include some of the largest financial players in the world such as Zettle by PayPal and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
In Malaysia, the company is connected to eight out of the top 10 banks.
Fasstap is the company's flagship product that allows one to carry out contactless payments at merchant outlets just by tapping the payment card on a near field communication-enabled mobile device instead of a point-of-sale terminal.
Tay said Fasstap was originally a byproduct of another product.
"We were getting certification for our PIN-on-glass product when we decided to launch Fasstap with PayNet. Visa then picked it up and soon all the other players also expressed an interest in Fasstap," said Tay.
Using the hardware-embedded security technology within the smartphone to enable secure PIN-entry and authorisation is reportedly a world's first.
"Our future plan is to create more value for banks. The lines between banks and non-banks are getting blurry and if traditional banks do not adopt new innovations, they will lose out to their more digital-centric competitors," Tay said.
On the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), Tay said payments could benefit from the application of AI in determining the legitimacy of transactions, thus helping the industry to combat scammers and frauds.
Soft Space, which has almost doubled its revenue in the last two years, is aggressively hiring.
The company had 120 employees in January but it has now grown to 230. Of these, 60 per cent are below 30 years old while 30 per cent are women.
Tay is a chartered accountant who previously worked as an external auditor while Leong has a degree in electrical engineering.
He learnt programming on his own and previously helmed the Commercialisation Department of Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd from 2009 to 2012, a technology adviser for Microsoft (August 2008 to August 2009), and project manager for ExxonMobil (August 2005 to August 2008).
He also holds a general Master's of business administration from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland.
The writer was a journalist with the New Straits Times before joining a Fortune Global 500 real estate company. This article is a collaboration between the New Straits Times and Tradeview, the author of 'Once Upon A Time In Bursa'.
