ASEAN’s 9 FinTech Unicorns

In early October, Credit Suisse published a comprehensive report on the 35 “ASEAN Unicorns” across industries. In terms of geographic distribution, 15 of these unicorns are headquartered in Singapore, eleven in Indonesia, three each in Malaysia and Thailand, two in Vietnam, and one in the Philippines. Industry-wise, nine of these unicorns are classified as FinTech companies, which is where we like to focus.

Advance Intelligence Group

Singapore

Valued at US$2 bn in its latest funding round in September 2021, as reported by the Business Times.

Founded in 2016, Advance Intelligence Group (AIG) is an AI-driven tech company. Headquartered in Singapore, the Group states on its website that it has a footprint spanning 12 markets across South Asia, SE Asia, Greater China and LatAm with >1.5k employees, >1k enterprise clients, >75k merchants and >20 mn consumers. AIG has three business units:

• ADVANCE.AI: a big data and AI company in Asia that deals with digital transformation, fraud prevention and process automation for enterprise clients
• Atome Financial: consumer business that offers buy-now-pay-later (Atome) and digital lending services (Kredit Pintar, ND Finance)
• Ginee: an e-commerce merchant services technology platform that provides SaaS software products and digital solutions for e-commerce, retail, brand and enterprise customers

Akulaku

Indonesia

Dealroom.co estimates valuation for Akulaku at ~€909 mn (~US$1.1 bn) in its last funding round in 2019.

Akulaku was started by William Li (ex-Ping An Insurance) and Gordon Hu (ex-Tencent, Oracle, Citic) in 2014 with the idea of revolutionising the digital financial experience of the ASEAN and Indonesian populations. Fast forward to 2021, Akulaku has a presence in Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), cash personal loans, installments (offline BNPL), P2P lending (Asetku), and merchant solutions. In 2021, it increased its stake in Bank Yudha Bhakti and rebranded it to Bank Neo Commerce (BNC).

Matrixport

Singapore

Valued at US$1 bn in its latest funding round in August 2021, as reported by the Business Times.

Founded in 2019, Matrixport is a digital asset financial services platform that offers a wide range of crypto financial products including trading, lending, institutional-grade custody solutions, structured products and asset management to institutional and retail clients worldwide. Based in Singapore, the company has commercial licenses in Hong Kong and Switzerland, with over 220 employees serving customers across Asia and Europe. Matrixport’s customers are mainly high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors who own at least US$1 mn worth of crypto.

Mynt

Philippines

ABS-CBN News quotes the valuation of Mynt as close to US$1 bn as of 2021.

Mynt is the holding company of Globe Telecom’s digital investments, a fintech startup partnership between Globe Telecom, the Ayala Corporation and Ant Financial. It is one of the first companies to enable financial access for consumers and merchants through providing digital payments systems in a society that is cash driven. Its services include payments, remittances, loans, business solutions and platforms. GCash is the micropayment service that transforms the mobile phone into a virtual wallet. This subsidiary houses GCash, the “super-app” that acts as an all in one mobile app, targeting to be a lifestyle app for Filipinos. FUSE, another subsidiary, is a digital bank that is focussed on personal and SME lending through the use of mobile technology with the use of a credit scoring algorithm.

NIUM

Singapore

Valued at US$1 bn in its latest funding round in Jul-2021, as reported by the Business Times.

NIUM, was founded as a cross-border remittance service in 2014 (previously launched as Instarem). NIUM is a global payments platform where consumers and businesses can send, spend, and receive funds across borders. According to the company, their platform for Pay In, Pay Out and Card-Issuance allows banks, payment providers, travel companies and other businesses to collect and disburse funds in local currencies to over 100 countries, as well as to issue physical and virtual cards globally. The company is licensed in the EU, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, and Singapore. Recently, NIUM acquired virtual card issuance company, Ixaris, and Wirecard Forex India in 2021.

OVO

Indonesia

Straits Times quotes the valuation of OVO at US$2.9 bn as of March 2019.

OVO was established in 2016 as an app that offered payments, loyalty points and other financial services. It was primarily backed by Lippo Group and was built in partnership with BCG Digital Ventures. It then received a licence to operate as a fintech company towards the end of 2017. With strategic partners in Tokopedia and Grab, OVO has become the designated e-wallet platform for the e-commerce and ride-hailing giants, propelling its base to more than 120 mn users in 2019. As of Dec-2020, the company has six major shareholders: Grab (39.2%), Tokopedia (36.1%), Tokyo Century Corporation (7.5%), Lippo Group (7.2%), Wahana Inovasi Lestari (5%), and Ide Teknologi Indonesia (5%).

Vietnam Payment Solutions (VNPay)

Vietnam

Valued at >US$1 bn in its latest funding round in July 21, as reported by the VnExpress.

Vietnam Payment Solution JSC (VNPay) was established in 2007 by three Vietnamese businessmen. The company has spent its nearly 14 years of operation in developing the electronic payment solutions for Vietnamese and revolutionising the finance and banking industry. According to the company, VNPay is currently providing e-payment services to more than 40 banks, 5 telecommunication companies and more than 20,000 other corporates.

Xendit

Indonesia

TechCrunch quotes the valuation of Xendit at ~US$1 bn in its last funding round in September 2021.

Xendit is a financial technology company that provides payment solutions in Indonesia, the Philippines and Southeast Asia. It provides a secure and integrated payment system that can accept transactions from virtual accounts, credit and debit cards, e-wallets, retail outlets, and also online instalments. The company was founded by in 2015 by Moses Lo, Tessa Wijaya, and Bo Chen. Based on a TechCrunch article dated Mar-2021, it was the first company to go through Y Combinator’s accelerator programme and was ranked №64 on Y Combinator’s top 100 companies list (by valuation and top exits) in January 2021.

Source: Credit Suisse, ASEAN Unicorns, published October 5, 2021

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