💰Lots of money

Southeast Asia is one of the fastest-growing fintech markets in the world. It is also the most well-funded sector in Southeast Asia!

• The numbers. In 2022, $4.31B went into fintech funding! 
• So much growth. The funding amount was $863M in 2018. 

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🏦 The breakdown

Payments led the pack. Payment startups received $1.9B in funding. Followed by alternative lending at $506M. 

Despite the crypto market's turbulence, the cryptocurrency category secured third place with US$461 million!

🇸🇬🇮🇩Singapore and Indonesia together accounted for 76% of funding

• Indonesia saw an 11% increase in funding from 2021
• Of the 163 fintech deals, 55% were awarded to Fintech companies based in Singapore!

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💱 Some notable deals?

Oh-so-early. We saw over 80 deals in early-stage fintech.

• Finclusion (Seed, $40M, Singapore), TreeHouse (Seed, $18M, Singapore), Brick (Seed, $8.5M, Indonesia), Anfin (Seed, $4.8M, Vietnam). 

A to B. Lots of Series A and B funding rounds took place!

• TNG Digital (Series A, $168M, Malaysia), Sky Mavis (Series A, $149.9M, Vietnam), TONIK (Series B, $131M, Singapore)

Later stage deals? We saw a total of 18 deals, accounting for over $2B in funding. 

•  Coda Payments (Series C, $690M, Singapore), Xendit (Series D, $300M, Indonesia), Voyager Innovations (Series FF, $210M, Philippines)

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🚀 Some driving forces.

Financial inclusion. Inadequate financial inclusion in the region has been one of the reasons behind the accelerated growth.

• The penetration of insurance and wealth management is also low.

The untapped opportunities make the perfect playing field for fintechs!

And Covid. 70% of SME merchants accepted only cash in 2019. The pandemic drastically accelerated SEA's shift to a cashless world. 

Being digital-savvy. A growing young population is driving consumer fintech adoption. This means businesses need to follow suit!

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👀 Future of fintech

Embedded finance. Embedded fintech products within super-apps like Grab allows for the maximization of user LTV. We also expect to see more verticalization, especially for B2B models! 

AI and blockchain. With the friendly yet stringent regulatory environment in Singapore, we expect to see more adoptions of AI and blockchain in fintech products!

• The MAS kicked off "responsible" adoption of AI and data analytics in credit scoring (May 2020)

More cashless economies! Many in the region still opt to pay with cash. But with a growing young and digitally savvy population and governmental support, SEA will continue to move towards a more cashless economy.

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