Even today millions of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and adults in Southeast Asia do not have sufficient access to financial services and face large funding gaps. With the emergence of new technologies fintech startups are on a mission to provide this essential service to reduce this wide funding gap.
Lets have a look at a few startups that are bringing financial services to Southeast Asia’s unbanked populations-
- Saphron (Philippines)
Saphron is a technology company driven to make insurance radically accessible and propel financial inclusion in Southeast Asia. It is backed by — Pioneer, Amihan and CARD-MRI. They want to address the severe insurance penetration gaps in the ASEAN. Their grassroots agent platform, Nan.AI is built for microinsurance agents, making insurance accessible and painless for micro markets.
- Zigway (Myanmar)
Zigway is a Fintech Social Enterprise based in Yangon, Myanmar. It was founded in 2016. Their mission is to help low-income families come out of poverty and empower women in local communities. They provide service for household essentials and affordable nano-loans. Their mission is to lift 20 million people out of poverty by 2030.
- CredoLab (Singapore)
Founded in 2016, Singapore based CredoLab has 63 clients in 19 countries. It is a venture built by FORUM and backed by Fintonia Group, and Walden International. CredoLab develops bank-grade digital scorecards. They provide pay-per-use solutions that are available to banks, consumer finance companies, auto lenders, online and mobile lenders etc. CredoLab’s AI-based proprietary algorithm analyses huge number of data points from smartphones and convert this digital footprint of customers to highly predictive scorecards.
- SmartNet (Vietnam)
Launched in 2019, Ho Chi Minh City based SmartNet is the developer of SmartPay, a digital wallet service. It targets the country’s financially underserved consumers and businesses. They have also expanded their services to Japan, European countries, America etc. SMARTNET focuses on the latest technologies to produce optimal solutions for customers.
- Julo (Indonesia)
Founded in 2016, Jakarta based, Julo is a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending firm providing unsecured consumer loans. They use a proprietary credit scoring technology that leverages machine learning to assess the creditworthiness of the population that do not get loans by conventional banks. Julo’s mission is to improve the access to capital for the country’s youthful population and has received accolades from the United Nations for the same.
The affordable and efficient digital solutions provided by the Fintech industry will help to reach out to the people excluded from formal financial services. With the mushrooming Fintech initiatives, the industry will soon take the centre stage in financial inclusion worldwide.
