SE in Asia fintech fundraising is on the rise after purchasing closed items

Advertisers have invested heavily in financial institutions in Southeast Asia this year, as closed consumers have shifted to mobile payments and banking programs.

According to a study by the analytics team Refinitiv, there have been 80 fintech contracts worth $ 3bn in 2021 – more than the number raised in 2020 and 2019 combined.

“The fintech site has started this year, not just for making money,” said Rohit Sipahimalani, an economist at Temasek, a state-owned company in Singapore. “More and more businesses are growing and expanding.”

Mynt, a Philippine e-wallet company with the support of China’s Ant Group and Global Telecom, a subsidiary of Ayala, closed $ 300m this month at a cost of more than $ 2bn.

Singapore’s FinAccel, Indonesia’s parent credit card company Indonesia, is expected to make a public announcement in the US early next year after agreeing to combine it with an empty car at a cost of $ 2.5bn.

Akshay Garg, chief executive of FinAccel, said the increase in funding in the region was driven by investors looking for alternatives to China because Beijing had disrupted the technical sector. “Southeast Asia is one of the main beneficiaries of China’s economic slowdown while the money is still there,” he added.

Strong consumer demand has also allowed many fintechs to profit more quickly, increasing the attractiveness of investors.

Mynt’s registered users increased by 51m during the epidemic – about half of the Filipino population – and the company announced its first investment in June.

Filipinos have always depended on their homeland sari, or women’s and pop stores to plug in their phones and credit and do other prepaid payments.

About one-third of the country’s senior citizens have a bank account, which leaves them dependent on casual lenders but smartphone ownership is high, says Martha Sazon, head of Mynt.

“What we are trying to do is move into rural areas in different states.”

Through its GCash platform, the company offers everything from loans and payments to digital insurance and sales revenue. “We have a communication saying ‘Instead of buying milk tea, buy a bag that carries Google, Apple and Microsoft’,” Sazon said.

2C2P from Singapore is another regional company looking to raise money to build a business to make online payments to retailers and other organizations.

The company was founded in Bangkok in 2003 and has provided online banking and business protection and is now used by almost all lenders in Thailand, UOB in Singapore, and BDO in the Philippines.

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Since Singapore in 2008, business has evolved into a payment system, enabling entrepreneurs to pay for goods and services in a number of ways. Customers who purchase an item from Lazada’s ecommerce company, for example, can get a payout checkout with a credit card or credit card, through a mobile banking app or at a nearby store.

“We set up offices in all countries, get licenses from regulators, and coordinate all paid services in all countries,” said Aung Kyaw Moe, chief executive officer of 2C2P. The company hopes to launch its own public startup within three years, he added.

The new offerings of fintech companies are also driving new sales revenue from major markets from local retailers, says Sipahimalani of Temasek. “In Thailand, the number of trading accounts has increased by more than a million last year,” he said.

Follow John Reed and Mercedes Ruehl on Twitter: @JohnReedwrites and @mjruehl