HelloGold to shutter operations in Malaysia and Thailand

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 26): HelloGold, Malaysia’s first shariah-compliant gold savings platform, is shutting down its operations in the country and Thailand. It said the business is no longer commercially viable in the current market condition and it will pivot completely to a business-to-business (B2B) model.

In an email to depositors on Thursday (Jan 26), HelloGold chief executive officer Robin Lee said the platform will cease to operate on Feb 2.

The platform was launched in Malaysia in 2017 and expanded to Thailand in 2019. However, due to the pandemic, its plans to venture into the Middle East and Indonesia were halted. According to Lee, the platform had over 60,000 active users with investments amounting to over RM25 million in the two countries.

“Unfortunately, 60,000 isn’t a number that is sustainable, because when we launched [the platform] our goal was primarily targeted at…