Cents & Sensibility

RinggitPlus’ co-founder speaks of the startup experience and the evolution of the digital marketplace.

- Helena Hon And Amanda Suriya Ariffin

Followers of financial comparison site RinggitPlus.com may have noticed that the website has been completely revamped. Not only does it now sport a brand new look and feel, it has gone live with an intuitive, Malaysian English-speaking chatbot to further personalise your visit – all in the name of making access to and application of financial products so much easier. Second, the brand makes it presence felt on TV when partnering with Ringgit Sense – TV3’s personal finance and money management programme of the past 15 years – and the new show complete with extended content and a fresh presentation, is now called Ringgit Sense+.

For sure, this must be a watershed moment for RinggitPlus’ founders. The website, which is owned and operated by fintech company Jirnexu Sdn Bhd, was started accidentally in 2012 when two financial buffs who had just returned from the UK, met up over coffee and realised they shared a passion for giving people financial advice and tools to save money. By the end of the discourse, the deal was sealed and the rest, as they say, is kismet.

But was it truly that straightforward? How has the journey to making a start-up’s presence felt in the crowded online financial services space really been?

Siew Yuen Tuck, who prefers to be addressed as YT, is the cofounder and CEO of Jirnexu Sdn Bhd; he remembers that the trigger that drove him to get online to do something for the financial services industry was the dearth of such services in Malaysia. That, and a UK financial comparison website called moneysupermarket.com.

The Oxbridge alumnus is kitted out in shirt and jeans when we meet [but with a vague rocker vibe about him – maybe it’s the hair and the numerous bands of arm candy – Ed]. There are undeniable traces of the City of London in his hesitant, but measured drawl.