Ajaib co-founders
This October, investment app Ajaiab became the seventh unicorn of Indonesia within just two and half years after its launch. It is not surprising that Southeast Asia has risen to become a hub of personal finance startups riding on the young, internet-savvy middle-class in the region and supercharging the welfare for all.
Here is a list of 27 startups that could help you save, invest, bank, budget, mortgage, get insurance, plan retirement and tax amid the pandemic.
Also read: Moneythor guides you through the personal finance jargon minefield
Hugo Save
Co-developed in 2019 by David Fergusson, Ben Davies, and Braham Djidjelli, Hugo Save is a digital saving app helping users manage their personal finance.
Hugo’s accounts are secured with DBS Bank. A member of the Singapore FinTech Association, Hugo allows customers to make purchases with a company-issued Visa debit card and save money according to their financial goals. They may also use the Hugo app to purchase and sell gold assets for under US$0.0074 (S$0.01) and convert their money into actual gold.
In June this year, the Singapore-based startup raised a US$2 million seed investment from 1982 Ventures.
Endowus
Endowus provides a platform for cash, central provident fund (CPF), and supplementary retirement scheme (SRS) funds to be invested by individual, accredited, and institutional investors.
The Singapore-headquartered startup offers professional tailored advice and “best-in-class” funds at a cheaper cost with no sales expense and a full trailer fee rebate.
Established in 2019, Endowus claims it has experienced a 20x rise in clients investing on the platform and 8x increase in funds under management.
Earlier this year, the company landed US$17 million in a Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Kristal.AI
Asheesh Chanda and Vineeth Narasimhan created Kristal.AI in 2016. The firm employs artificial intelligence and provides customers with tailored portfolios that comprise exchange-traded assets such as equities, bonds, options, futures, and currencies.
Founded in 2016, Kristal has an in-house investment committee comprising specialists with years of expertise in sectors, including banking and trade, according to reports.
Kristal.AI now has over 10,000 active users on its platform, and the company manages assets worth more than US$100 million.
Early last year, the Singapore-headquartered startup secured a US$6 million Series A round from Chiratae Ventures and Desai Family Office.
ADDX
Launched in 2017, Singapore-based ADDX offers access to private equity, unicorns, hedge funds, private debt, and other alternative investments for accredited investors. The firm is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and is available to all non-US accredited and institutional investors.
ADDX was rebranded from private capital platform iSTOX following a US$50 million Series A funding round from Japanese state-backed investors.
Call Levels
Call Levels provides a cloud-based downloadable free app for users in Singapore. It assists clients to have rapid access to all of their financial investing data.
The app also offers a user-friendly dashboard for managing customer relationships and portfolios. Besides, it has created a platform for the administration of donations to give back to charity.
In 2015, after one year of its inception, the company closed a US$500,000 pre-Series A financing led by 500 Startups.
Dr Wealth
Launched in 2013 by Alvin Chow, Dr Wealth is a Singapore-based financial education firm that helps retail investors make better financial decisions.
In early 2020, the firm created a stock screener, research, and portfolio management platform. This platform provides stock data available to investors from a variety of Asian stock exchanges, including the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), and the Hong Kong Exchanges (HKSE).
In 2014, the company bagged US$640,000 in seed funding led by Puffer Ventures.
AutoWealth
Founded in 2015, AutoWealth is a National University of Singapore (NUS) Enterprise portfolio company.
Regulated by the MAS, AutoWealth provides online financial counselling and investment management using a proprietary algorithm. It has developed an automated method that reduces processing time and intermediary expenses.
Meanwhile, it still provides consumers with tailored personal finance advice on the asset composition, initial investment amount, and recurring investment instalments.
In 2019, the startup raised US$3 million in a funding round to expand into Malaysia’s market.
StashAway
StashAway is a Singapore-based online investment management firm founded in 2016. It offers a data-driven investing framework and a digital asset management platform.
Individuals may open portfolios with a zero-dollar minimum deposit, unrestricted withdrawals, and yearly fees ranging from 0.2 per cent to 0.8 per cent.
The platform uses a systematic asset allocation method to customise portfolios based on an individual’s financial assets, investing time horizon, and risk preferences.
Earlier this year, the startup bagged a US$25 million Series D funding round, led by Sequoia Capital India.
Infina
In January 2021, Infina launched its app in Singapore and has now extended to Vietnam. Most of its customers are in the 25-40 age group, seeking alternatives to long-term asset classes such as real estate. The app needs a US$25 minimum investment and allows investors to choose from various assets such as savings accounts, term deposits, fractionalised real estate, and mutual funds.
It counts among its investors the companies such as Dragon Capital, ACB Capital, Mirae Asset Fund Management and Viet Capital Asset Management.
Last June, the firm snagged a US$2 million seed round from Saison Capital, Venturra Discovery, 1982 Ventures, 500 Startups, Nextrans, and angels.
Finhay
Founded in 2017, Finhay is a platform that assists users in saving wisely and optimising idle cash by automatically transferring funds to reputed financial funds in Vietnam.
A one-stop shop for financial services in Vietnam, Finhay focuses on assisting millennials in prudently building money. The firm strives to cater to the market’s underserved demographic.
Last year, the company secured seven-digit funding from Jeffrey Cruttenden, co-founder of the popular US savings app Acorns, local company Thien Viet Securities, and other investors.
Finsify
Built by Ngo Xuan Huy in 2013, Finsify is an online startup that focuses on offering personal finance solutions through mobile apps and web platforms.
Finisfy, previously ZooStudio, has developed Money Lover, a personal money management software. Money Lover consolidates all of a user’s bank accounts to help them better track their finances.
Money Lover claims that it recently topped the chart as the number one app in personal finance. With plans to offer software aimed at accountants.
HelloGold
Created in 2015, HelloGold is a Malaysian personal finance firm that assists individuals in securing their money through gold investments.
Its Shariah-compliant technology helps users follow gold prices in real-time. The firm also offers investors to buy, save, and sell this precious metal.
In 2018, the startup raised undisclosed Series A financing from 500 Startups.
Akulaku
An Indonesian platform for consumer financing, AKulaku focuses on virtual credit cards, digital communication, and consumer products.
Akulaku is also available in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia. In Indonesia, the firm stated that its money management platform has over 100,000 monthly active users.
Launched in 2014, the company claims to have served over 6 million users and generating over US$1.5 billion in yearly transactions.
In 2019, the startup bagged US$100 million in Series D funding round from Ant Financial, Alibaba’s business line in the financial services sector.
Pluang
Pluang, established by Claudia Kolonas and Richard Chua, caters to Indonesia’s expanding middle class by allowing individual investors to spend as little as US$0.50 in gold, equities indexes, mutual funds, and cryptocurrencies.
It assists first-time users in reducing risk. It also emphasises financial education on investment and long-term wealth development.
Last month, the startup secured an additional US$53 million led by Square Peg, following a US$20 million funding round earlier in March.
Ajaib
Stanford MBA classmates Anderson Sumarli and Yada Piyajomkwan launched Ajaib in 2019. It is a mobile-first stock trading platform leveraging Indonesia’s high smartphone penetration rate.
In Indonesia, the business claims to have attracted more than one million stock investors out of a total of 2.69 million retail equity investors.
Earlier this month, the startup added US$153 million led by DST Global to its kitty to become a unicorn.
Friz
Co-founded by Friz Ash Rhazaly and Nirali Zaveri, Friz is a Singapore-based fintech startup providing financial services for freelancers.
The firm uses data insights to provide freelancers financial goods such as credit cards, personal loans, insurance, savings, and investment options. Friz allows freelancers to keep track of and manage their revenues, spending, savings, and borrowings all in one place, resulting in increased productivity and the closing of borrowing gaps.
Last April, the startup secured an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding with participation from Y Combinator, 500 Durians, 500 TukTuks, Iterative VC and other angel investors
MFast
Phan Thanh Vinh and Phan Thanh Long co-founded fintech platform MFast in 2018. It allows Vietnamese to utilise, introduce, and access financial and insurance services.
The smartphone app connects disadvantaged communities with financial and insurance institutions to guarantee that everyone has access to basic financial services, allowing individuals to better their livelihoods, manage risks, and enhance their quality of life over time.
MFast claims to have helped almost 600,000 Vietnamese access financial and insurance services from reputable organisations after three years of operations in Vietnam.
Earlier this year, the startup raised US$1.5 million in pre-Series A funding round led by Do Ventures, a local early-stage VC firm.
Finory
The Finory team
Finory is a fintech business headquartered in Malaysia that analyses credit card statements and provides customers with crucial information such as the total amount due, the minimum amount required, and the due dates.
Founded in 2020, Finory utilises retrieved data to offer timely notifications reminding users about upcoming due dates and amounts payable. Users need to provide their monthly bank statement to Finory. It will then scan it and extract essential information for display on the app using machine learning techniques.
Seedly
Seedly was founded in 2016 in Singapore to assist people in making better financial decisions. In the last two years, the millennial-focused community features, such as crowdsourced Q&A and the Reviews platform, have experienced over 250 per cent year-on-year growth in users.
The firm also has a budgeting tool and app that helps over 130,000 customers to connect their financial accounts and better manage their cash flow.
In 2020, CompareAsiaGroup acquired Seedly to extend its personal finance community beyond Singapore. The acquisition comes two years after ShopBack purchased Seedly in an equity-cumulative cash deal in May 2018.
Makmur
Sander Parawira, a former Virtu Financial executive and Facebook programmer, created the personal finance company Makmur in 2019. It allows Indonesians to plan their financial objectives (emergency fund, retirement money, and children’s education fund) all in one place.
Makmur generates optimum plans suited to customers’ risk tolerance, investment horizon, and current economic conditions using a patented dynamic asset allocation technique used to its goal-based investing and Robo Advisory capabilities.
Last month, the firm scored “seven-digit” seed funding led by Beenext.
Halofina
Adjie Wicaksana and Eko Pratomo, both veterans in the financial industry, launched Halofina in 2017. It’s AI-powered personal financial planning software that helps users manage their finances and develop investment ideas.
The Indonesia-based startup said that most of its users are millennials and those in the middle-upper income bracket.
In 2019, the platform secured an undisclosed amount of pre-Series A funding round led by Mandiri Capital Indonesia.
PinjamWinWin
PinjamWinWin is an Indonesia-based fintech peer-to-peer loan firm created in 2015 by James Susanto, an alumnus of the University of New South Wales in Australia who worked in banking, mining, and trade.
Its mobile app connects lenders and borrowers with a processing period of less than a day, no collateral, and competitive interest rates.
The startup landed funding from SOSV to help finance unbanked Indonesian in 2019. PinjamWinWin said it would provide around 185 million unbanked Indonesians with insurance-backed loans.
Jojonomic
Indrasto Budisantoso, the former CEO of Groupon, established Jojonomic in 2015. It began as personal financial management software. Then in October 2015, it released Jojonomic Pro, a platform to assist businesses with employee reimbursement administration.
The app amplifies gamification to make the tedious process of tracking one’s spending more engaging and exciting.
In 2016, the Indonesian fintech startup bagged US$1.5 million in a financing round led by Maloekoe Ventures, with participation from Golden Gate Ventures, Fenox VC, and East Ventures.
Syfe
Syfe is a digital wealth platform located in Singapore developing the next generation of financial products for Asian consumers.
Dhruv Arora started Syfe in 2019 to change the way people manage their money and make high-quality wealth management services inexpensive and accessible to everyone.
Within two years of its inception in Singapore, Syfe raised more than US$52 million.
Last July, Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures led Syfe’s most recent Series B financing round.
Holdnaut
Hodlnaut is a Singapore-based company that offers financial services to individual investors looking to earn income on their cryptocurrency holdings.
In 2019, Juntao and Simon co-launched Holdnaut. The startup claims that it allows users to earn interest of up to 12.73 per cent APY on their crypto.
Last month, Hodlnaut partnered with Okcoin, the US-based crypto exchange, to improve users’ investment options and earnings potential.
Autumn
Autumn, based in Singapore, is a bank-agnostic and open platform created and funded by SC Enterprises, Standard Chartered’s innovation and ventures business.
Founded by Mike in 2020, Autumn helps its consumers to plan and manage their financial and physical well-being by providing best-in-class goods and solutions.
The firm takes a comprehensive approach to retirement planning, assisting people in understanding how their lifestyle choices affect their money and health, ensuring that they are well-prepared for retirement.
BetterTradeOff
BetterTradeOff was established in 2015 by Laurent Bertrand and Robert Lonsdorfer. It aims to democratise financial planning by providing consumers with accessible and comprehensible advice.
Through its bespoke dashboards for banks and financial advisors and a free virtual platform for consumers, users can simulate life situations such as purchasing a new home or planning for retirement, making it easy for users to see and understand the impact of their decisions.
BetterTradeOff has recently partnered with Zurich Malaysia and Standard Chartered Bank to simplify financial planning for their customers with its solution.
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Image Credit: Ajaib, Infina, Pluang, Finory
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