Northstar

Feature Rising stars in MICE 28 SEP-OCT 2018 MEETINGS & CONVENTIONS MCMAG-ASIA.COM "I understand "I understand the challenges of the challenges of the procurement the procurement process and process and I wish to lead I wish to lead the way for the way for professional MICE procurement behaviour." IVANKA XU, FOUNDER AND CEO, MERAK AND CEO, MERAK MERAK: THE SMART PROCURER Working with the right suppliers is crucial to an event's success, and Merak provides intelligent MICE solutions that create a digital marketplace between the parties. It ensures the best procurement practices and smart algorithms will benet planners with cost eciencies and premium procurement standards. INDUSTRY IMPACT Since Merak's rst release of global AI for MICE procurement in 2015, the product line has evolved to oer a comprehensive solution for event planning, sourcing and execution management. "I hope to use intelligent technology tools to assist the upstream (such as enterprise) and downstream (such as third-party supplier) industry chain more eciently and professionally…the aim is to be a high-productivity and high-value industry rather than to be a traditional labor-intensive and operation-focused industry," said Ivanka Xu, founder and CEO. Merak provides technology and business solution consulting that will help enterprises to raise standards in MICE management. www.merak.com MONEYMATCH: THE FINTECH CONSULTANT Creating signicant value by disrupting the remittance sector. The goal of achieving huge savings, convenience and speed for consumers inspired Head of Corporate Sales Justin Mah to work with the company's partners in 2015 to make an impact with MoneyMatch BizFX. It is a proprietary digital platform that enables businesses to make international payments to suppliers and partners at exchange rates that are up to 50 percent cheaper and 10 times cheaper in transaction fees. INDUSTRY IMPACT "To date we have achieved moderate success with 500 companies signed up but we have barely scratched the surface of Malaysia as there are more than 900,000 SMEs registered," said Mah. He also added that they have successfully processed thousands of transactions, a total of RM162.8 million (US$39.9 million) and growing. MoneyMatch aims to be the region's rst digital bank that oers a full suite of nancial products. "Financial intelligence is crucial in any business, so we aim to simplify them for our customers and to enable businesses to focus solely on driving other aspects of their business forward," shared Mah. Approved and regulated by the Central Bank of Malaysia, MoneyMatch was the Fintech Start-up of the Year at this year's inaugural Malaysia Fintech Awards. They are also the winner to represent Malaysia at Singapore Fintech Festival 2018's ASEAN Pitchfest in November. www.moneymatch.com "Why should sending money overseas still be so expensive and slow in a day and age where we can virtually communicate with anyone at real time through an array of platforms?" JUSTIN MAH, HEAD OF CORPORATE SALES, MONEYMATCH JUSTIN MAH, HEAD OF CORPORATE SALES, MONEYMATCH

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