BOOST: Creating an avenue to drive MSME’S forward

Boost started off as an eWallet company in 2017 that provided progressive means of making digital payments in Malaysia. Today, this homegrown fintech company has evolved to become a regional full spectrum fintech player in Southeast Asia that unifies financial services spanning payments, micro-financing, micro-insurance, cross border content services and merchant solutions to help financially empower its customers

Sheyantha Abeykoon, Group CEO of Boost said “Boost has five different entities – Boost Life, Boost Biz, Boost Credit, Boost Connect and Boost Indonesia, that caters to the unserved and underserved segments, particularly micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). These businesses were grown separately over the last four years, and it was cohesively integrated under one umbrella one and half years ago.

“This now makes us one of the few fintech companies to offer solutions for consumer payment, merchant services, lending for small businesses, and we also have remittance services for enterprises”, Abeykoon added. In securing the digital bank license, the Boost-RHB digital bank consortium achieved a significant milestone as one of the five recipients in the country and brought Boost closer to its bigger ambition in the banking segment with the goal to drive innovation and provide greater digital access for financial inclusion amongst the underserved and unserved segments.

During a merchant visit in Penang, Sheyantha mentioned that Boost has fostered deep relationships with Malaysian’s MSME on the foundation of trust and transparency. Through this, it has allowed Boost to provide MSMEs who lack traditional credit history to gain fast and simplified access to low-cost micro financing facilities through their transaction data, which is used as a pre-score to grant them a loan facility without any collateral or guarantor required. 

“We  have financially empowered thousands of local MSMEs through our digital micro-financing solutions,  disbursing approximately RM1 billion worth of loans in Malaysia over the last four years with a major amount distributed to MSMEs in the past 24 months. As a digital platform, Boost can provide loans as low as RM1,000.00 to RM20,000.00 per merchant.” Sheyantha elaborated.

Sheyantha also commented saying that with more than 40 percent of Boost Merchants being new to credit and had never taken a loan prior, Boost offered these MSMEs a lifeline to help them stay afloat during the pandemic as the company’s non-performing loan remained low at two to three percent.

The pandemic has greatly affected how businesses operate and most importantly, it has sped up the world’s digital transformation. During this unprecedented time, Boost launched a feature called Boost Business Payment Link under Boost Biz, which allows merchants to collect and regain their payment from customers via a link that can be shared through SMS or WhatsApp. 

As of 2022, Boost Biz has close to 500,000 merchant touchpoints nationwide, which quadrupled since the pandemic, and more than 35,000 merchant touchpoints in Penang. Working alongside Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to have a seamless transition from offline to online, Boost onboarded over 45,000 merchants from MSMEs in 2020 – 2021 with approximately 12% of these merchants from the shores of Penang. 

Eric Chong, CEO of Boost Biz, said “With Boost signing a memorandum of understanding with Majlis Bandaraya Seberang Perai (MBSP) in September 2021, this has provided a convenient and simplified process for merchants to pay stall rentals, parking compounds and tax assessment through the Boost app.”

Explaining more about Penang-based merchants, Chong said that Boost has been working closely with a  62-year-old retailer in Penang called Sunshine Wholesale Mart Sdn Bhd. Aside from offering payment solutions for their shoppers, Boost has also assisted them in streamlining their staff allowances through Boost. 

Sunshine CEO, Cynthia Hwang, said “This partnership with Boost has enabled the company to disburse the monthly cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) of RM250 through the Boost app, which has enabled the company to cut down on extra paperwork for the human resource (HR) department as this was previously done through physical vouchers.”  

Meanwhile, the oldest nasi kandar restaurant in the country, Hameediyah, is embracing the world of digitalization to future-proof the growth of its 115-year-old eatery by partnering with Boost to stay ahead of the game in the cashless world. Its Operations Director, Muhammad Riyaaz Syed Ibrahim, said “Boost has helped our business tremendously, especially now when customers prefer to go cashless.”

In the mission to serve the unserved and underserved, Boost will continue to drive digital inclusion and financial empowerment by rolling out more financial solutions for merchants that will help close the credit gap for small businesses. 

Interested merchants who wants to make their business go digital, can click here to register as a Boost merchant. 

This content is provided by BOOST Malaysia

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