Xfers

Overview

Xfers began with a mundane Southeast Asian commerce problem: sellers could not reliably match bank transfers to orders without sharing account details, checking bank accounts, and chasing buyers. Founded by Victor Liew, Wenbin Tay, and Tianwei Liu, the Singapore company joined YC's Summer 2015 batch and built payment collection and infrastructure.^[1]

Xfers did not fail conventionally. In March 2021, Payfazz invested $30 million and the companies formed Fazz Financial Group, initially retaining both brands.^[2] The $30 million was a strategic investment, not a disclosed acquisition price. In 2022 the combined group rebranded to Fazz, while StraitsX continued as its digital-asset infrastructure arm.^[3] Brand absorption paired Xfers' Singapore infrastructure with Payfazz's Indonesian distribution.

Founding Story

The exact company is Singapore's Xfers, not a generic transfer product. YC's 2015 launch profile names Liew, Tay, and Liu as founders; the current company page lists only Liu and Liew, making the launch profile the fuller observed roster.^[1]

The founders encountered the problem while buying U.S. goods for friends in Singapore. Collecting reimbursement meant sharing bank details, chasing payments, logging into accounts, and manually deciding which transfer belonged to which person.^[1]

The regional context mattered. Credit-card penetration was lower than in the United States, while bank transfers and cash remained important. Online sellers needed to support those rails without turning reconciliation into manual operations.

Xfers initially let businesses collect credit-card and internet-banking payments. Consumers could buy online using a phone number, beginning in Singapore.^[1] The company later widened from checkout into payment infrastructure, onboarding, stored or routed funds, payouts, and digital assets.

Timeline

• October 2014: The Xfers API became available.^[4]
• Summer 2015: Xfers joined Y Combinator.^[5]
• January 2016: Xfers announced a $2.5 million seed. TechCrunch reported SGD 5.5 million processed since API launch.^[4]
• October 2020: Xfers publicly launched the SGD-backed XSGD stablecoin through StraitsX.^[6]
• March 3, 2021: Payfazz invested $30 million in Xfers and the companies formed Fazz Financial Group.^[2]
• October 2021: Xfers personal accounts became StraitsX personal accounts.^[7]
• August 2022: Xfers and Payfazz announced operation under the Fazz name, while StraitsX remained the digital-asset arm.^[3]
• September 2022: Fazz announced a $100 million Series C.^[8]

What They Built

Xfers' first product abstracted regional payment methods for online sellers. Businesses could accept cards and bank transfers; consumers could initiate payment with a phone number. The platform helped map incoming funds to users and orders.^[1]

The company expanded into infrastructure for accepting payments, onboarding users, storing or routing funds, and disbursing to bank accounts.^[5] This moved Xfers from a checkout convenience into a regulated operating layer for other businesses.

In October 2020, StraitsX launched XSGD as a Singapore-dollar-backed stablecoin. The launch described one-for-one redemption between SGD and XSGD for verified users and identified Xfers as holding a Singapore Major Payment Institution license for e-money issuance.^[6] Current permissions remain entity- and service-specific and require regulator verification.

After group consolidation, the capabilities continued through Fazz Business and StraitsX rather than one Xfers consumer brand. Fazz currently describes an ecosystem including Fazz Agen, Fazz Business, StraitsX, and Modal Rakyat.^[9]

Market Position

Target Customers

Xfers initially targeted Southeast Asian online sellers and buyers using cards or internet banking. It later served platforms needing payment acceptance, onboarding, fund routing, payouts, and digital-asset infrastructure.

Market Size

No audited original-Xfers revenue, customer count, margin, retention, fraud loss, or post-2016 volume was found. The API processed SGD 5.5 million by January 2016, according to TechCrunch.^[4]

StraitsX reported more than SGD 2 billion of digital-asset-related transactions during 2021 and more than SGD 1.5 billion in XSGD on-chain value by September.^[7] These are company-reported StraitsX metrics, not original Xfers operating results.