Aspire CEO Andrea Baronchelli
Singapore-headquartered Aspire, which intends to provide an all-in-one finance operating system (OS) for small and medium businesses (SMEs) in Southeast Asia, has announced an oversubscribed US$158 million Series B fundraise led by an undisclosed global growth equity firm.
DST Global, CE Innovation Fund, B Capital and Fasanara Capital, alongside existing backers Hummingbird Ventures, Mass Mutual Ventures, Picus Capital, and AFG, also participated.
Besides, Taavet Hinrikus (co-founder of Wise), Alexandre Prot and Steve Anavi (co-founders of Qonto), Pierpaolo Barbieri (founder of Uala), Moses Lo (co-founder of Xendit), Hendra Kwik (co-founder of Payfazz), and Gerry Colyer (co-founder of Clara) have also joined the round.
Aspire is looking to double down on existing markets with the new investment while building the foundations to serve growing business clients across Southeast Asia.
Incorporated in January 2018 by Andrea Baronchelli, former EVP and CMO at Lazada, Aspire aims to “reinvent SME banking in Southeast Asia” by serving a new generation of internet businesses with a mobile-first digital account across Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.
Also Read: Thailand’s Beacon VC invests in Singapore’s neo banking platform Aspire
The startup’s flagship product AspireAccount caters to digital merchants across the region and can be opened online in just a few clicks. It is free and comes with an instant credit limit for daily business expenses, a virtual B2B payment acceptance and other tools to help SMEs manage their cash flow.
As per a press note, Aspire has served over 10,000 businesses across Southeast Asia.
Aspire is a graduate of Y Combinator Winter 2018.
“We see a world dominated by integrated platforms across various business functions such as Salesforce for Sales or Slack for Communication. We believe the same is happening for finance, and we are here to build the operating system for the SouthEast Asia digital economy,” said CEO Baronchelli. “We build value for our customers by saving time, saving money, and boosting their growth.”
In August 2019, Aspire secured US$32.5 million in a Series A round of financing, led by Mass-Mutual Ventures (MMV) Southeast Asia, with participation from Arc Labs and Y Combinator, Hummingbird Ventures, and Picus Capital. This was preceded by a US$9 million seed investment from Insignia Ventures Partners, Mark 2 Capital, and Hummingbird.
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Image Credit: Aspire
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