Conference Transcript - KGEI 2026-09-29

Robert Bloom, Analyst — Managing Partner, Lithium Partners

All right. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Owl Ting Group Fireside Chat. Owl Ting is an operating brand of O-Book Holdings. Again, my name is Robert Bloom, managing partner here at Litham Partners. And up next, I'll be moderating a Q&A discussion with Darren Wong, founder and chief executive officer of Owl Ting Group.

Darren Wong, CEO

As a reminder, the company trades on the ticker symbol o w l s on the nasdaq all right let's get started darren welcome hi robert pleasure to meet you here fantastic uh for investors who may be new to the company can you provide an overview and the background that led you to sort of build this business here yeah no problem yeah so the company we had a vision to use stable coin to move the money across the world yeah so we started the journey about six years ago by applying for the u.s license and we go all over over the world that by applying license for example in europe in japan and other regions and so making the company regulated is actually the first important topic that we want to focus and then we build the technology for example we work with circle to bring in usdc as the standard uh digital currency and then uh we working with the bank in united states and other regions to providing uh on-ramp which means that your change for your fiat money to stable coin and then offering means that uh transfer the uh stable coin to uh for example europe uh you know hong kong dollar japanese yen and other currencies so as of today we can offer the stablecoin to over 60 countries and for the fiat transfer we can actually cover you know over 250 you know regions so this is you know the today's overall highlight and now starting this year we actually see a lot exciting things uh the movement around you know our initial vision that we have a lot of enterprise uh smaller fintech company for example uh they want to move the money from us to africa you know africa to china etc and uh right now we see uh it's probably the most exciting time for the company to see uh the transaction value you know basically increase a lot compared to the last month so i think we are you know getting into the right business model at the right timing and then the company is you know in the hyper gross mode right now yeah so this is pretty much the thing we want to build for the future role and you know we want to make everyone to move the money uh at the cheapest code like zero dollars just like you're sending the message on whatsapp all right very good so you know i mean you've really evolved

Robert Bloom, Analyst — Managing Partner, Lithium Partners

from a, you know, a broader technology platform into sort of this global payments company here. You know, how would you describe that evolution and, you know, kind of where the business is at today?

Darren Wong, CEO

Yeah, so, for example, my mother usually wants to send the money to the, you know, grandchildren to the United States. But every time she went to the bank, she needed to pay, you know, $30, $40 for the, you know, banking transfer fee. and takes about you know 24 48 hours and the thing is it's very expensive she need to go to the bank and she didn't know when the money will be arriving so that's the problem and the same problem actually exists in you know so many different countries for example a lot of people they want to send their money from us to latin america so takes about three days four days and the rate is horrible yeah so we want to reduce the friction that by you know reducing the cost you know making sure that people can you know receive the money within minutes it's not days and then you know people realize that you know we can send the money in the you know latest technology and your friend your family can receive the money in a tiny manner so this what's very important to us and to the consumers okay very good you know i i guess that really at the the center of your strategy as i understand it is is owl pay um you know sort of talk about the platform in some more detail you know the different products that are within it and you know you've sort of talked about this but you know really the problems that you're solving for customers are yeah so uh so we actually started uh the flagship product is called outpay harbor which means that we will uh you know moving the money between fiat and stablecoin and it's like a harbor you know the chip coming come out and uh we we are handling you know of the you know very complicated technology process during the the process so i think that's what you know you know most important is we provide a regulated way for smaller fintech companies that they don't have the budget to apply for the license in state and so we provide a license anti-money laundry you know kyc standard for so they can onboard their customer within two weeks now we spent six years for the licensing but right now we can shorten the time to two weeks to you know provide you know all the companies that want to move the money between us you know mexico us and africa you know to all those regions so that that's our flesh product called outpay harbor yes you know you you've obviously talked about sort of what you think is maybe the competitive advantage but you know from your perspective here what makes stablecoin enabled settlement more effective than sort of the traditional cross-border payment methods uh you know particularly for businesses you know operating some of these these hard to reach markets yeah so that's a very good question so i was just checking uh one particular transaction on this morning so there's uh one consulting company want to pay the money to europe right so uh it's actually cyprus i think so the the consulting firm actually pay uh you know from nigeria to cyprus the money arrived become the euro dollar within two minutes yeah so that's what makes it very different that uh you know i believe in the near term future uh there will be two layers for the banking or fintech the first layer is the traditional swift network so the fee of money still travel over the suite but it takes still you know days hours to for the money to arrive but the other layer is the blockchain technology so as you know that there's a lot of uh you know blockchain ledger for example ethereum you know solana they are the blockchain companies right but we need to move the money which means that we need to you know record every transaction you know over different blockchain for example there's usdc there's usdt right and uh you know those stable coins could be on ethereum or solana so it's too complicated for consumer or enterprise you know people that doesn't really care that which blockchain they are using they just care about the cost and then the time you know for the money to arrive so we are the company that's you know bridging that gap you know we we don't want people to understand hey which blockchain you're using we just want to tell them hey how how long does it take and what's the cost for moving the money from you know for africa to europe for example so that's actually the core mission for the company we don't want to make it too complicated for everyone we want to you know enable for example you can use any of the digital wallet that use our infrastructure to more than money and the most important thing is we are legalized you know in every country in the world so which means that you know it's as safe as bank and they're as regulated as the banking system yeah so i think this is the future and we're building the future with uh you know circle together and also using uh circles latest settlement network is called cpa circle payment network to move the money globally all right um you know payments market is highly competitive uh we've actually got a couple of companies at at the summit here that participate in the segment here you know what differentiates owl pay from you know from banks from other payment processors from maybe other stablecoin platforms and and other just broader in uh fintech infrastructure providers yeah that's a very good question so uh i think the most important thing is about the ability to settle the stable coin to different local currencies and the most important factor i will say we provide you know enough liquidity in every region for example if you are sending like for some 10 million dollars to one crypto exchange right and probably you know the local exchange uh crypto exchange they don't have 10 million dollars to exchange to the local currency so that's the problem right and if you're moving money for enterprise it's going to be you know hundred million dollars per day right so which means that you need to provide instant transfer capability to local currency. So that's we call liquidity in different currency. So we actually have partnered with bank, we partnered with Visa Direct to provide those liquidity in all those countries. So I think that's the most important different competitive mode comparing our company to others good um you often describe regulatory compliance as another competitive advantage here you know how important is your licensing footprint and how difficult would it be for another company to replicate what it is that you've built yeah i think the most difficult part is that the time and i think you know there's a lot of companies that have more capital you know than us right but only thing they don't really have is the time you know for example uh in u.s you need to apply for the license step by step and you need to you know ultimately achieve 50 states uh it's called money transmitter license and i think that the time we uh we have spent and invested in the licensing is over five years so that's something that you know big tech company they cannot really replicate because you know uh whenever you want to apply for a new license you need to go through the uh you know great local regulator to review the application something like that and that's just in the us but you are talking about the global scale you know you need to spend the same effort in different corridors for example japan you really need to spend a long time to private license and you know europe a lot of regulation you know privacy issues in different regions so i think this is very difficult uh as a startup company to replicate all of the you know licensing procedures uh to get uh to become global settlement and payment company so that's what the company different is we actually spend the time the capital so we want to enable every thing like regulated and success using our infrastructure so we want to become you know the you know uh the the person the company that's supporting all the you know giant in the future so that's our mission yeah we don't want to be the single brand you know that you know

Robert Bloom, Analyst — Managing Partner, Lithium Partners

everyone use we want to power like a hundreds of thousands of you know fintech company uh in their country to use our technology all right very good um we've sort of been talking a little macro here let's try to dive more well more specifically within the company here um i will pay harbor reached i think it was reported 79 enterprise clients in july uh payment volume more than doubled from june and and i think it increased for the sixth consecutive month there you know talk about what's driving that momentum and how should investors evaluate sort of the quality of your growth yeah so that's a very good question so uh it's basically like the the sas model when you

Darren Wong, CEO

are building the software as service right every month you have a new client that is onboarding the platform so you get a revenue you know coming from the existing client and every month we also have new clients onboarding the platform but the most beautiful thing is we are a payment infrastructure company which means that this month you probably onboarding like a client with 100 million dollar you know volume but next month you know there's a much bigger you know player coming with you know 500 million dollar you know transaction volume which means that your growth is actually not linear you know it's like a when you're onboarding larger client you know your revenue your transition actually goes you know two times three times or even more monthly basis and because you know our client they are all fintech company which means that you know every month they need to move the money for client so once they rely on your infra then they just keep using the infra you know but monthly monthly so which means that our revenue is very stable and with the new customer coming and we can we can actually make more money the investment for the infra is actually uh you know flayed because that's the most biggest investment in the previous uh was the licensing technology engineering team but once we're reaching the the tipping point, then we don't need to invest anymore. We just need to get a client more and more to use our platform. And then with their volume growth, the company has much more revenue coming every month.

Robert Bloom, Analyst — Managing Partner, Lithium Partners

Gotcha. When an enterprise, a new enterprise client signs an agreement, what does that activation process look like?

Darren Wong, CEO

And what determines how quickly that relationship begins to contribute sort of the meaningful transaction volume that you just kind of referenced there? so initially when we launched the platform uh it takes about i would say you know four weeks to onboarding the client but right now since our operating team engineering team has much more experience providing api to them also we have interface for people who doesn't have uh you know engineering team to put them to the api platform so we have both and right now you know we can shorten the period to the shortest time for customer to onboard is like three days and like they finish three days onboarding process and uh you know that usually there's something the kyb uh document and we you know quickly go through we're using a lot of ai to you know screening the process onboarding the customer and then you know they can start to do some testing in transaction, once the testing pass, then they can bring the real value. But we have client, you know, that's, you know, shifting, you know, $3 million less amount and this amount they've become $15 million. So that's something that really, you know, helping the platform to scale and with much more, you know, enterprise client base.

Robert Bloom, Analyst — Managing Partner, Lithium Partners

Okay.

Darren Wong, CEO

You sort of, you know, help walk us through the economics of the business right you know how you sort of generate revenue how margins could develop as as more payment volume moves across the platform yeah no problem so usually there's two uh revenue type for the company yeah so you know for payment company we usually make money by you know first one is transaction fee yeah so that's ranging from you know 15 25 to you know 50 bits and with different corridor that we offering the stable coin to different countries so you know we usually have some fsv you know behind that so i would say typically uh you know it's a big range because every country has different effects rate right so we try to be competitive but the ultimate goal is actually to uh find a balance between uh our you know transfer platform and other you know traditional fiat player or banking system so it's usually ranging from i would say uh 50 bits to you know one percent or two percent depends on countries that you you know send the money to okay good um Which corridors offer the greatest near-term opportunity, in your opinion, and how do you decide where to expand next? Okay, that's a very good question. So, so far, we noticed a lot of opportunities between U.S. and Africa, particularly Nigeria. and a lot of people actually sending money between Africa to, for example, Hong Kong. And I think also Japanese corridor, also very important that we can actually settle a lot of money to Japanese markets, Southeast Asian countries, you know, corridors like that. So those are the corridors that we value, you know, a lot. and also a lot of, you know, sediment that's between, I would say, U.S. to Latin American. So I think we have a lot of opportunities, and particularly Indian market as well. Yeah, we have, you know, partnered with some partners in the Indian market, so Indian people can actually use the stablecoin in the future. So I would say emerging country, Latin American, Africa, you know, the greater China area or, you know, Southeast Asia, those are the emerging markets. That's very good opportunities.

Robert Bloom, Analyst — Managing Partner, Lithium Partners

Okay. You mentioned Circle earlier. You know, how do your relationships with companies such as Circle and Visa, you know, strengthen the platform? And, you know, where do you sort of then add the further value, if you will, beyond just the broader payment ecosystem?

Darren Wong, CEO

Yeah, so Circle is, the first one is they are also a listed company. Yeah, so I think they provide USDC as the standard, I would say, digital currency for U.S. dollar. And starting actually Q4 last year, Circle launched a global payment network. they want to become a new replacement for swift right so we are building a circle payment network globally uh to see if people can easily uh send you the money with their cell phone and using the because there's a stable coin right which means the blockchain cannot travel on swift so we need to have a new network that can actually move the money so that's actually the the thing we are building with circle together and globally and of course we're building our own settlement corridors in for example in you know uh hong kong china you know japan you know different corridor uh that you know circle payment network hasn't covered so i think our company is like uh we're trying to become the most comprehensive uh stablecoin settlement infra for everyone who want to use the stablecoin that's something very important right if you go to the bank and you want to send the bank to africa right the bank tell you hey we cannot send the money to africa then you have no way to send the money right so i think uh this is the core value for the company and for the partner with visa we're trying to bridge for example you have a debit card you have visa card you can use you know either one of them to switch your dollar to stablecoin and settlement through either our circle payment or visa direct network or our own settlement network so people didn't realize in the past you only use visa card to shopping right to check out in the restaurant coffee shop but in the future visa direct can become a new protocol for people to send the money i think that's the major difference and the partnership between you know the company the circle or visa okay good uh i know we're getting sort of towards the end of the uh time here but uh one thing i want to touch on you know beyond sort of harbor you you how should investors think about i will pay cash you know the agent wallet agent checkout you know some of the other opportunities to support payments initiated by consumers or or ai agents yeah i said actually or our AI agent or you know cash it's obvious you know build on our infrastructure which means everything is built on our harbor so it's like TSMC you know people using all the foundry from TSMC the people didn't realize it's built on by TSMC so that's something we want to build in the fintech industry by power every you know fintech company to use the infra either let's help a cash or other you know cash app they want to set on the money they can use our technology and

Robert Bloom, Analyst — Managing Partner, Lithium Partners

for stablecoin it's particularly new and difficult so we power all the technology for settlement using stablecoin okay good um you know just kind of wrapping things up here you know your your 25 results you know largely reflect the you know sort of the cost of building the infrastructure becoming a public company as transaction volume scales what should investors watch to determine whether you know the investments beginning to translate into revenue growth operating leverage you know and sort of a path to profitability there yeah so i think the most important is the metric for our pay harbor this is actually the company spent the last five years

Darren Wong, CEO

the capital the labor engineering uh operating team to focus for the future right so once the i think right now we are into a very good uh you know as phase that people we see the numbers you know picking up and it's something that you cannot marketing to you know create the numbers right so it's actually that we believe we are in a very good phase that company entering the growth phase so we want to when i think that's the most important thing that you know uh investors should rely on and then focus on it's actually about we are building future right it's not the

Robert Bloom, Analyst — Managing Partner, Lithium Partners

past the company coming from taiwan we have some legacy revenue but the future for the company is the global settlement business using our pay harbor so i think that's the most important trick like a measure for the company all right very good well we're at the end of the time here darren thank you so much for your participation the summit here today greatly appreciate it uh thank you of course everybody for watching uh we do have additional presentations and fireside chats coming up next so please stick around for more again darren thank you so much for your time thank you Thank you, Robert. It's my pleasure.