Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times: Asian Innovation, Inclusion, and Impact during COVID-19

ASIA BUSINESS COUNCIL HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 7 7 Yoma Group (Myanmar) Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times at a time when there was a pressing need to reduce travel, avoid in-person gatherings, and come up with safe avenues for donation and disbursement of relief and emergency funds. Wave Money was launched in 2016 as the first licensed mobile financial services operator in Myanmar, as a joint venture between Telenor Group, the Norwegian telecommunications giant, and Yoma. As the fintech sector in Myanmar continued to develop, Yoma Strategic announced a partnership with Ant Group in May 2020 through which the Chinese fintech firm would invest $73.5 million in Wave Money to become a substantial minority shareholder. 2 Furthermore, in June 2020, Yoma Strategic announced a $76.5 million deal to buy a controlling stake in Wave Money by acquiring Telenor Group’s 34.2 percent stake. 3 While Yoma Strategic’s acquisition of Wave Money had been in the works for a long time and would have happened with or without COVID-19, the pandemic under- scored the importance of Wave Money and fintech in general, not only for Yoma but for Myanmar as a country. Today, Wave Money is the leading mobile financial services provider in Myanmar with over 68,000 Wave Shops covering 91 percent of the country and 90 percent of rural areas, including very remote locations. Wave Money saw $8.7 billion in money transfer volume in 2020. The number of Monthly Active Users on WavePay, Wave Money’s mobile wallet application, has exceeded 1.5 million and is expected to potentially reach over 11.2 million by 2024. Mobile Money in Myanmar “As people started trying Wave Money and found that it worked, it took off like wildfire,” noted Brad Jones, CEO of Wave Money who spent 10 years in the Australian military before becoming a banker and business executive. “When I first got introduced to the concept of financial inclusion around 13 to 14 years ago, I realized that you could make significant social impact and leave a developing country far better off than it was before. I first started seeing how business could make huge social impact through the use of technology when I was working in Cambodia in the late 2000s.” According to Jones’ estimates, although less than 1 percent of consumers in Myanmar would have said they transferred their money through mobile payments back in 2016, over 90 percent would say they did it through mobile payments in 2020. While the development of garment factories and other industries in one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies has led to rural-urban migration and a demand for remittance services, the majority of the population of Myanmar does not have access to banking. It was very difficult to move money from one part of Myanmar to another, and people would move cash using taxis, buses, informal middlemen or even by travelling themselves.