The funding round followed a US$2 million pre-Series B funding round Jirnexu has announced in October 2017

Malaysia-based full-stack fintech solutions provider Jirnexu today announced that it has closed a US$11 million Series B funding round led by existing investor Japan-based SBI Group, with participation from SIG Asia Investments.

Bringing its total funding to US$17 million, the funding round followed a US$2 million pre-Series B round Jirnexu has announced in October 2017.

In a press statement, the company claimed to have grown “rapidly” since its last funding round by achieving 100 per cent year-on-year (YOY) growth in 2017. It has served “over” 30 financial service institutions in its home market Malaysia.

Jirnexu plans to use the new funding to support product development, particularly in the aspects of consumer digital identification and eKYC (know-your-customer) automation.

It is also looking forward to conduct talent acquisitions, which includes a CTO and Digital Marketing Head for its Malaysia operation RinggitPlus.

“This stage of growth which we are entering is all about the quality of people we hire, retain, and develop,” Jirnexu CEO and Co-Founder Yuen Tuck Siew explained to e27.

Also Read: Fintech firm Jirnexu adds US$1.5M to its Series A, aims to complete Series B by early 2018

“As we launch more products and services we need to grow our talent in order to successfully scale the business. We are handing down more responsibility as well as P&L ownership so it’s essential that we find leaders who are just as driven to grow the business,” he continued.

Founded in 2012, Jirnexu helps banks and insurance companies manage the different stages of customer journey, from marketing to retention, by using a data-driven platform named XpressApply.

The company owns and operates financial comparison sites KreditPlus in Malaysia and KreditGoGo in Indonesia.

In the email interview, Yuen also explained that while the company has a long-term plan to enter a new market in addition of the two countries, in 2018 they will remain focussed on existing markets.

He also talked about the challenges faced by the company in each market.

“In Malaysia, the majority of banks and insurance companies are running on legacy systems that were never designed to deal with real-time customer interactions online. In Indonesia, many processes such as KYC remain manual, posing a challenge to digitising other parts of the customer value chain,” he said.

Also Read: Slew of investors help KL fintech startup Jirnexu raise US$3M Series A

When it comes to talent acquisition and team building, particularly for engineering and development, there is an ongoing trend among startups in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia to acquire and set up a team in global tech hubs such as Bangalore.

Ride-hailing giant Go-Jek and human resource/accounting management platform Sleekr are examples of such startups.

In developing its team, will Jirnexu follow their footsteps?

“At the moment we are confident that we can hire the necessary engineering talent in and into Malaysia to meet the needs of the business. However, if there was an opportunity to acquire a great team we would evaluate it,” Yuen closed.

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Image Credit: Jirnexu

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