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<\/a><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s driving the growth in payments is the country\u2019s ongoing transition from a cash to cashless society.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat cash-to-cashless conversion has not finished, and that\u2019s what is actually fuelling this high growth in digital payments,\u201d says Ni. Malaysia already ranks second in the world for QR code payment adoption behind China, he notes.<\/p>\n
CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (KL:CIMB<\/a>), the country\u2019s second-largest banking group by assets, is TNG Digital\u2019s biggest shareholder with a 45.01% stake. The stake is held through the bank\u2019s wholly-owned unit, Touch \u2019n Go Sdn Bhd, which runs the toll and parking payments business.<\/p>\n TNG Digital\u2019s other shareholders are Ant International Technologies (HK) Holding Ltd (34.62%), Lazadapay Holdings Pte Ltd (11.38%), ASP Malaysia LP (5.99%) and insurer AIA Bhd (3%).\u00a0<\/p>\n Ant International Technologies is part of Ant Group, a Chinese fintech giant best known for operating Alipay, one of the world\u2019s largest open platforms for payments and digital services. ASP Malaysia is held by New York-based investment firm Bow Wave Capital Management.<\/p>\n On a tremendous growth trajectory<\/p>\n TNG Digital\u2019s revenue has been expanding at a compound annual growth rate of about 70% over the past four years, says Ni. The company is targeting revenue of RM1 billion in FY2026, although Ni indicates that based on its current trajectory, it is likely to easily surpass that level.<\/p>\n Interestingly, toll and parking payments contribute only a low single-digit percentage to TNG Digital\u2019s revenue, according to Ni. This may come as a surprise to those who still primarily associate the company with those businesses. Its shareholder, Touch \u2019n Go Sdn Bhd, is the one that operates the toll and parking business. It is understood that while the two companies undertake certain products together, such as TNG RFID and PayDirect, the revenue from those offerings accrues to Touch \u2019n Go Sdn Bhd, with TNG Digital receiving a fee-based portion.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the very early days, toll and parking made up a very big portion of our business. Now, they contribute only a low single-\u00addigit percentage to our revenue, so you can imagine how much we have grown,\u201d he explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ni became TNG Digital\u2019s leader in April 2022, having previously served as its chief operating officer since August 2018. \u201cI was Employee No.3,\u201d he recalls. Before joining the company, Ni held senior leadership roles at CIMB Group. He has over two decades of experience in consumer and commercial finance, as well as risk and fraud management.<\/p>\n When the company launched TNG eWallet in March 2018, it had a straightforward mission of converting users of the Touch \u2019n Go card \u2014 ubiquitous in tolls and parking \u2014 into digital wallet users. \u201cFor the first one or two years, we were very focused on that. At the time, toll-and-parking was still the majority of our business,\u201d Ni recalls.<\/p>\n But the company quickly moved beyond its origins, first with QR payments, then online payments and, later, cross-border payments. By 2020, it had ventured into its next phase: financial services.<\/p>\n Its financial services now span wealth management, insurance, remittance and lending \u2014 all undertaken through partnerships. Its partners are CIMB Group, Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd (KL:ABMB<\/a>) and other financial institutions and companies.<\/p>\n TNG Digital\u2019s lending business is still at an early stage and fairly small, accounting for just 3% to 4% of total revenue. \u201cThis is definitely an area that has room to grow,\u201d says Ni.<\/p>\n Its partnership model is what sets it apart from incumbent banks and digital banks. Instead of taking deposits or lending off its own balance sheet, the company has built an open platform that connects its millions of users to its partners\u2019 financial products.<\/p>\n In other words, it doesn\u2019t need the underlying licences or expertise to roll out financial services \u2014 it just needs partners. This has allowed the company to grow rapidly without the capital or regulatory constraints typically faced by digital banks, says Ni.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the beauty of our model. It\u2019s our partners\u2019 products, but we help them distribute the products on our platform and by doing so, we take a certain commission income. So, TNG Digital becomes a very big distribution platform. This is actually why we grow so fast, because we don\u2019t need to build everything ourselves, we don\u2019t need to apply for every single licence and we don\u2019t need to build all the tech platforms one by one,\u201d Ni states.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t take any deposits at all. The deposits, the funding, is theirs and so is the products\u2019 balance sheet. I\u2019m simply distribution,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n Ni, however, does not discount the possibility of pursuing certain businesses or licences on its own.<\/p>\n \u201cWe never say never. It really depends on customer needs. When you do other people\u2019s products, there may be certain limitations as you\u2019re only a distributor. So, if we feel there are products we can deliver much better on our own, then we may consider it,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are areas we are exploring, but we don\u2019t have any concrete plans at this stage \u2014 whether it\u2019s applying for a licence or venturing into something else.\u201d<\/p>\n On rivalry with digital banks and other lenders, Ni says: \u201cWhen you understand our business model, you\u2019ll realise I have more friends than competitors. If I\u2019m not the best, I can work with the best \u2014 do you want to join me as a partner? So, I actually see most of my competitors not just as competitors but as [potential] partners.\u201d<\/p>\n However, given the highly competitive landscape, not all rivals may see things the same way. Malaysia\u2019s digital payments and financial services space is crowded, with more than 30 e-wallet players in operation. Banks, digital banks and fintech firms are all vying for a share of the same customer base.<\/p>\n Not yet a super app<\/p>\n If TNG Digital\u2019s first phase was about building scale in payments, and the second \u2014 which is still ongoing \u2014 is about monetising that scale, then the third is about becoming something broader: what the company describes as an \u201ceveryday digital companion\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBeginning from the last two or three years, we\u2019ve also really focused on lifestyle-related user cases,\u201d says Ni. That ambition is evident in the app\u2019s growing list of features. For example, users can now search for nearby restaurants, complete digital arrival cards for travel to several countries, or even rely on a feature that covers toll charges temporarily if their balance runs low \u2014 all without direct monetisation.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, we went from payments, to financial services and to [being] an almost all-in-one kind of super app, or digital companion,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Ni stops short of labelling the company a \u201csuper app\u201d as it has a high bar for what can truly be called a super app.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be a super app, you don\u2019t just need to have a very big user base, you also have to have a wide range of user cases. If we compare ourselves to WeChat Pay or Alipay or Meituan in China, we still have some gaps. Their ecosystem is much bigger. But in the Malaysian context, [among] the homegrown apps, I do feel we\u2019re probably the one closest to super app status.\u201d<\/p>\n What the company is aspiring towards is to become an \u201ceveryday digital companion\u201d to its users. That means putting out the kind of products and services users want so that they only need to use one app for all their needs. \u201cOnce you\u2019re using us for everything, every day, then of course we have some cross-sell opportunities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Ni reveals that the company may launch a \u201cfamily wallet\u201d later this year where parents and their children can link their e-wallets. \u201cWe\u2019ve also launched TNG Digital Singapore to serve Singaporeans, but usage will mainly be in Johor, cross-border,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Indeed, for TNG Digital, it is clear that its challenge over the next few years is not whether Malaysians will use its app, but how much more of their daily lives it can become a part of, even as its rivals strive to do the same.<\/p>\n Read also: Save by subscribing<\/a> to us for P\/S: The Edge is also available on<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nCover Story: TNG Digital may be first fintech unicorn on Bursa when listed<\/a><\/p>\n
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