Fintech Lightnet Partners Swiss Crypto Bank

The Singapore joint venture will serve both retail and institutional investors from the globe with a more transparent and secure settlement solution.

Bangkok-based fintech Lightnet’s partnership with SEBA will strengthen its remittance settlement capabilities and provide a seamless, secure and accessible bridge between digital and traditional assets, as it sets its sights on the region’s remittance market.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed by both parties, SEBA will serve as the banking counterparty for the Lightnet Group, enabling settlements, correspondences and remittances in both fiat and digital currencies, an announcement on Tuesday said. Zug-based SEBA will also act as an alternative settlement banking network, account and custodian as well as the settlement bank for money transfer operators (MTOs) in digital currencies.

Asia is a promising market not only because of its size but especially because of the affinity of the people towards digital services and digital assets, Matthew Alexander, head of asset tokenization of Seba Bank, said about the partnership.

Lightnet said it will use a blockchain financial protocol developed by Velo Labs, a decentralized credit and settlement network in Asia, to transform remittance services for the millions of unbanked migrant workers across Southeast Asia, which is currently characterized by high transaction fees, fragmentation and unreliable payment routes.

The company said it also plans to introduce multi-currency virtual accounts to address the inefficiencies of global trade finance.

Lightnet was co-founded in 2018 by Chatchaval Jiaravanon – a family member of the Charoen Pokphand group in Thailand – and tech entrepreneur and former investment banker Tridbodi Arunanondchai. Earlier this year, the startup raised $31.2 million in a Series A funding round led by UOB Venture Management, the private equity unit of UOB Bank.