MALAYSIA, The Malaysian Reserve, 21 April 2017 – AEON Credit Service (M) Bhd has entered into a collaboration agreement with online gold savings platform HelloGold Sdn Bhd to market and offer its first asset-backed personal financing scheme by the end of this year.
The partnership is also the first collaboration for HelloGold, a Malaysia-based fintech (financial technology) company and the first Shariah-compliant gold digital application aimed at changing the way people buy and sell gold.
Through the tie-up, AEON Credit will provide loans to customers who purchase between RM1,000 and RM10,000 worth of gold on the platform, with a profit rate of 8% per annum.
“With HelloGold, we will have the opportunity to develop and be part of the country’s first digital asset- backed lending product. Additionally, this move will increase our existing product base for a new generation of customers,” AEON Credit MD Kenji Fujita said at the signing ceremony in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
He said AEON Credit customers would benefit from using the platform as it encourages purchasers to save and invest, while being able to access financing where necessary.
The startup is a mobile-based digital platform that allows consumers to purchase investment-grade gold at current market prices at a lower cost, with a focus on consumers from the middle-income bracket.
HelloGold CEO Robin Lee said it is designed to enable everyone to invest in gold with as little as RM1, as well as to buy and sell their gold anytime through the mobile app.
“Furthermore, the financing product with AEON Credit will allow customers to use their gold as collateral when they have urgent borrowing needs,” he said.
Lee said the company targets to have 500,000 users over the next five years in Malaysia.
“We are also looking to expand into key Asian markets such as China, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Our aim is to enter Thailand and China by end-2017,” he stated.
The HelloGold app was launched in Malaysia during the last-quarter of 2016, and is free to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play.