IFC Invests $20 Mn in Boost as Malaysia’s Digital Banking Race Shifts to Lending
The World Bank Group’s private-sector arm is backing Axiata’s fintech business as Malaysia’s five digital banks move beyond customer acquisition towards the harder task of building sustainable credit books.
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Malaysia’s digital banking market is moving into its next test: lending money profitably to customers traditional banks have struggled to reach.
International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group member focussed on the private sector, has invested $20 Mn in Boost Holdings, bringing development finance capital onto the cap table of Axiata’s fintech business as it expands digital lending to Malaysian consumers and small businesses.
The equity investment was signed on July 31, and IFC records the investment as having been made on August 17, before being announced on September 28. Axiata said the deal valued Boost Holdings at $340 Mn post-money, although it did not disclose the size of IFC’s resulting stake. Existing Boost Holdings shareholders include Malaysian telecom group Axiata, Singapore insurer Great Eastern and Japan’s Mitsui & Co.
Holding Company Gets Funding
The distinction between Boost Holdings and Boost Bank matters, as IFC is investing at the fintech’s holding company level. Boost Holdings owns 60% of Boost Bank, while Malaysian lender RHB Bank, part of the country’s RHB Banking Group, holds the remaining 40%. The wider Boost business also spans payments, e-wallet services and lending, as well as a supply chain financing operation in Indonesia.
The capital will support Boost’s growth, with IFC and the company highlighting digital lending and alternative credit assessment as ways to expand financing for SMEs and consumers who may have limited access through conventional channels. IFC has made more than 80 fintech investments globally and is also expected to bring experience in risk management and financial inclusion as Boost scales.
When Lending Becomes the Measure
That comes as credit is becoming a more important measure of whether Malaysia’s digital bank experiment can develop into a sustainable business.
Boost Bank’s loan book reached RM418 Mn at the end of June, according to Axiata. Boost’s first-half revenue increased 67.3% YoY, although the figure was helped by RM51 Mn of one-off income from software and related services.
Boost Bank began operations in 2024 and started lending in 2025 after Boost Holdings and RHB were among five consortiums awarded Malaysian digital bank licences in 2022. All five licensed digital banks were operating by the end of 2025.
Together, those banks had attracted 2.4 Mn customers and RM4.2 Bn in deposits by the end of last year, according to Bank Negara Malaysia. About 65% of their customers came from unserved or underserved segments.
More tellingly for the next phase of the market, digital banks had approved RM1 Bn in financing, of which 34% went to those groups.
Why Credit is the Harder Part
Those numbers show both the opportunity and the challenge. Digital banks can acquire customers quickly through mobile platforms and offer low-cost deposits without building physical branch networks.
But lending is harder. Banks must turn transactional data and alternative credit signals into underwriting models that can extend relatively small loans at scale without letting defaults and credit costs overwhelm the economics.
For Boost, that challenge is central to the business it is trying to build. The company began as an e-wallet in 2017 before expanding into merchant and consumer financing and, eventually, digital banking. Its proposition increasingly rests on whether data gathered across that ecosystem can help it assess borrowers who may not fit conventional credit models.
That also explains IFC’s interest. Financial inclusion is not achieved simply by opening a digital account. The larger economic question is whether new lenders can extend useful credit to households and businesses that previously lacked it while maintaining underwriting discipline.
Malaysia’s digital banks are now reaching the stage where that distinction becomes measurable. Customer numbers and deposits show demand exists. The next contest will be over the quality, growth and profitability of the loans built on top of them.
IFC’s $20 Mn gives Boost additional capital for that transition. The harder test will come as its RM418 Mn loan book grows materially.
Malaysia’s digital banking market is moving into its next test: lending money profitably to customers traditional banks have struggled to reach.
International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group member focussed on the private sector, has invested $20 Mn in Boost Holdings, bringing development finance capital onto the cap table of Axiata’s fintech business as it expands digital lending to Malaysian consumers and small businesses.
The equity investment was signed on July 31, and IFC records the investment as having been made on August 17, before being announced on September 28. Axiata said the deal valued Boost Holdings at $340 Mn post-money, although it did not disclose the size of IFC’s resulting stake. Existing Boost Holdings shareholders include Malaysian telecom group Axiata, Singapore insurer Great Eastern and Japan’s Mitsui & Co.
