Daily Briefing: Cross-border payments startup Thunes bags US$10m in series A funding; K Hotel in Geyang up for sale at $25m

And over 20 households in five-room and larger flats sold part of lease in Q1.

From DealStreetAsia:

Thunes, a Singapore-based cross-border payments startup, has secured US$10m in Series A funding, led by GGV Capital.

According to a statement, the company will use the funding to develop its service and expand into new markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Its expansion will also involve opening new offices in San Francisco, Dubai and Paris in addition to its Singapore, London and Miami offices.

Thunes offers four payment solutions: P2P remittance processing, corporate mass payouts, B2B payments and digital payment services. It has a global network of over 80 countries and more than 9,000 payout partners. On a daily basis, it completes over 300,000 transactions and processes over US$3b per annum.

Read more here.

From PropertyGuru:

JLL has the offer for sale K Hotel, a freehold eight-storey, 56-room hotel, for $25m.

JLL, the exclusive marketing agent for the sale said K Hotel is licensed to provide daily and hourly accommodation services, and is located in the city fringe – just East of the Central Region.

Located in a mature urban enclave, the freehold hotel occupies a land area of 3,725 sf and an estimated gross floor area of 12,238 sf, equivalent to a gross plot ratio of about 3.29. Spanning eight stories, K Hotel offers 56 double rooms of 12 sqm. Based on the Master Plan 2014, the site is zoned “Commercial / Institution” with a Gross Plot Ratio of 2.8.

Read more here.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

More than 20 households who live in five-room and larger flats sold the tail end of their unit's lease back to the Housing and Development Board (HDB) in Q1 under the Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS), said the Housing and Development Board (HDB).

In response to queries from CNA, the board said it received more than 200 LBS applications from owners of these bigger flats between Jan 1 and Mar 31 after the scheme was extended to them at the start of the year.

With the extension, about 34,000 households became eligible for the LBS, bringing the total number of households eligible to 130,000, said HDB.

The scheme allows elderly owners to monetise their flats while they continue to live in them by selling at least 20 years of their remaining lease back to HDB.

Read more here.