Singapore Payments Firm Thunes Takes Compliance Group Stake

Thunes, a Singapore-based global payments firm, said on Wednesday it had taken a majority stake in the Tookitaki financial crime detection and prevention company for $20 million.

Tookitaki will use the funding to deepen its presence in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan, Thunes said.

The compliance company’s clients include food delivery companies Grab, Deliveroo, UberEats; payments operators Moneygram, Western Union and Remitly, digital bank Revolut and the Paypal, Singtel Dash, M-PESA and Airtel mobile wallets.

Tookitaki said it tracks more than 180 million transactions annually.

“This alliance will give all Thunes customers access to next-generation tech compliance systems, reducing the cost of transferring money across borders,” said Peter De Caluwe, CEO of Thunes.

Tookitaki’s banking and fintech clients will automatically gain access to Thunes’ network.

“We’ve already identified multiple ways to grow faster together, increasing the value we provide to our customers,” he added.

Firms Will Stay Independent

Between 2 and 5% of the global gross product, or $800 billion to $2 trillion, is laundered each year, according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates.

A recent JP Morgan report suggests total annual transaction costs for global cross-border payments have climbed to US$120 billion. Regulatory compliance forms a significant percentage of this amount, De Caluwe said.

The Thunes and Tookitaki businesses will continue to operate independently, De Caluwe added.

Singapore-based Tookitaki was founded in November 2014, and employs over 100 people across Asia, Europe and the US.

“At Tookitaki, we have been passionate about fighting financial crime and expanding our AML capabilities globally,” said Abhishek Chatterjee, founder and CEO.

“Our approach to AML monitoring is highly adaptable to changing market needs and customer behaviour and fundamentally changes how machine learning is applied to detecting financial crime,” Chatterjee added.

Last year, Thunes’ acquired of Limonetik, a European payment methods platform.

George Russell

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George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.