Siam Commercial Bank flexes its tech muscles

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Siam Commercial Bank flexes its tech muscles

Thailand’s oldest bank is betting on its venture capital arm to drive profits and growth in the future. But is that a good strategy?

Mukaya Panich, SCB 10X.jpg
SCB 10X's chief venture and investment officer Mukaya Panich

Mukaya Panich has pulled off a string of deals for Siam Commercial Bank’s venture capital arm in recent months.

Just weeks before Asiamoney spoke to her, the chief venture and investment officer at SCB 10X disclosed the firm’s participation in a series D, $310 million funding round for Fireblocks, a New York-based digital asset platform.

That followed close on the heels of a joint investment in Darwinbox, an Indian cloud-based, human resources technology platform, and a co-investment in Anchorage, a crypto-currency depository platform which raised $80 million from a series C funding round in March. Series C and D are usually later-stage, pre-IPO funding rounds.

For Panich, a 20-year veteran of the tech industry, this flurry of investments highlights the rapid transformation of Thailand’s fourth-largest bank by assets.

“Our focus is to find and invest in disruptive technologies,” she tells Asiamoney. “I want SCB 10X to be the go-to name for startups in Asia or startups in the western world that want to expand into Asia, especially in the areas of blockchain and DeFi.”

Our focus is to find and invest in disruptive technologies.

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