11 fintech startups from Singapore have been recognized in the inaugural NextGen Tech 30, a prestigious award celebrating Southeast Asia’s most promising high-growth technology companies.
NextGen Tech 30 is said to be the first public-private initiative in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) dedicated to identifying and supporting the top 30 up-and-coming growth-stage companies that are driving innovation and economic transformation across the region.
This year’s cohort was presented on September 24, at Singapore’s SGX Center by guest of honor, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Heng Swee Keat. The selected companies, which represent dynamic sectors like fintech, logistics, and agritech, hail from countries including Singapore, Indonesia, and China.
A key highlight of this year’s group is its remarkable average growth rate of over 40%, underscoring their rapid expansion and global impact.
Moreover, half of the winners generate revenue outside of ASEAN, demonstrating their competitiveness on the global stage. In addition, nearly 20% of the recognized companies are pioneering solutions in sustainability, clean energy, and environmental impact, positioning them as leaders in sustainability innovation.
The 2024 winners were selected by a panel of key industry players representing organizations such as KKR, Granite Asia (formerly GGV Capital), Singapore’s InfoComm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore Business Federation, Singapore-based global investor EDBI, SGX Group, DBS Bank, Northstar Group, and 65 Equity Partners.
These companies were assessed based on several criteria, including their ability to use artificial intelligence (AI) or digitalization to solve problems more efficiently and effectively.
They had to generate at least US$20 million in revenue or achieve year-on-year revenue growth of at least 30%. They also had to a clear environment, social and governance (ESG) strategy and demonstrate long-term value creation. Finally, these companies had to be headquartered in ASEAN or be operating primarily within the region.
Today, we look at the fintech startups from Singapore that made it into the 2024 NextGen Tech 30, highlighting their value propositions and recent achievements.
Aspire
Aspire is the all-in-one finance platform for modern businesses globally, helping over 50,000 companies save time and money with international payments, expense management, payable management, and receivable management solutions. The startup serves notable companies including Air Asia, Carousell, Love Bonito, Endowus, and Tech In Asia.
Headquartered in Singapore, Aspire employs over 600 people across nine countries and is backed by global top tier venture capital (VC) firms, including Peak XV Partners, Lightspeed, Y-Combinator, Tencent and Paypal. In 2023, the company closed an oversubscribed US$100 million Series C round and announced that it had achieved profitability.
In May 2024, Aspire launched in Hong Kong, offering a suite of financial solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including the ability to open local business accounts for payables and receivables management, international payments, as well as payment gateway solution.
Aspire has also been named among Singapore’s top ten startups in 2024 by LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s annual Top Startups list highlights the 10 fastest-growing and most innovative companies in Singapore. The list is based on LinkedIn data across employee growth, jobseeker interest, engagement, and attraction of top talent.
Endowus
Founded in 2017, Endowus is a leading independent digital wealth platform in Asia, licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Endowus is the first digital advisor in the region to span personal savings, private wealth and public pension, helping investors grow their wealth holistically, with conflict-free advice and access to institutional financial solutions at low and fair fees through a personalized digital wealth experience. It partners with over 80 global fund managers to provide a range of investment options across public and private markets, hedge funds, and alternatives.
With group assets of over US$6 billion, Endowus claims it is one of the largest independent wealth managers in Asia and says it has created more than US$40 million in savings for its clients. The startup has attained numerous awards including Singapore’s Best Digital Wealth Management (Asia Asset Management’s Best of the Best Awards 2024), Singapore’s Best Digital Wealth Management Experience (The Asset Triple A Digital Awards 2023), and Best WealthTech Solution 2023 (Asian Private Banker 9th Technology Awards).
Like Aspire, Endowus has also been named among this year’s top ten startups in Singapore by LinkedIn.
YouTrip
Launched in 2018, YouTrip is a mobile financial platform based in Singapore that offers a multi-currency mobile wallet and a contactless Mastercard to make payments in over 150 currencies. The platform is designed for travelers and tech-savvy consumers alike.
YouTrip was created with the vision to provide a smarter and more convenient way to handle foreign currency transactions. Today, the platform is a trusted companion for many, claiming to deliver the best foreign exchange (FX) rates with zero transaction fees. It allows users to perform in-app exchanges at any time and spend in any currency, and ensures that FX rates are updated in real-time and displayed transparently on the YouTrip app, with no hidden markups.
YouTrip has experienced significant growth in Singapore and Thailand, with its user base tripling between 2021 and 2023. Additionally, its corporate card and spend management platform, YouBiz, has achieved notable milestones, onboarding over 3,000 enterprises in its first year in operation.
Like Aspire and Endowus, YouTrip has been named among this year’s top ten startups in Singapore by LinkedIn.
Syfe
Syfe is a digital investment platform licensed by the MAS. Launched in July 2019, Syfe’s mission is to transform the way people manage their money and make high quality financial services affordable and accessible to all.
Syfe Portfolios offers personalized and custom portfolios, enabling users to fulfill their long-term financial goals. The platform has no minimum investment amounts and maintains a low annual fee, starting at 0.35% per annum of the total amount invested.
Brokerage, the first neobroker in Singapore, allows users to grow their money by buying and selling US and Singapore-listed securities. Investors can easily buy into the world’s biggest companies starting with as little as one dollar, have access to free trades, a simplified user experience, and get real-time market data and analysis.
Syfe currently serves over 100,000 customers in Singapore and is now looking to expand to other Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets, including Hong Kong and Australia.
Like Aspire, Endowus and YouTrip, Syfe has been named among this year’s top ten startups in Singapore by LinkedIn.
Advance Intelligence Group
Founded in 2016, Advance Intelligence Group is one of the largest independent tech startups headquartered in Singapore. The company leverages innovative technology and partnerships to build an ecosystem of products and services serving consumers, enterprises and merchants.
Advance Intelligence Group’s enterprise brands, Advance.ai and Ginee, provide enterprise digital identity, compliance and risk management solutions and omni-channel merchant services solutions to banks, financial services, fintech, retail and e-commerce industries. Its consumer brands, Atome Financial and Kredit Pintar, provides buy now, pay later and digital lending products in both developed and emerging markets.
Advance Intelligence Group claims it serves over 500 enterprise clients, 235,000 merchants and 40 million individual consumers, and says it has disbursed over US$4 billion in loans since its inception. The company, which is headquartered in Singapore and operates across Asia, is backed by top tier investors including the SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Vision Plus Capital, Gaorong Capital and Singapore-based global investor EDBI.
Bolttech
Founded in 2020, Bolttech is one of the world’s leading embedded insurance providers. The business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) insurtech connects tailored and affordable insurance products to consumers via partner platforms in more than 30 markets across three continents. It serves a wide range of customers, including more than two million emerging consumers, especially with its device protection offerings.
Bolttech has licenses to operate throughout Asia, Europe and all 50 US states, and claims it quotes approximately US$50 billion worth of annualized premiums. Globally, Bolttech’s ecosystem comprises more than 600 distribution partners with over 230 insurance providers, and offers in excess of 6,000 product variations.
Bolttech’s mission is to build the world’s leading, technology-enabled ecosystem for protection and insurance.
Coda Payments
Founded in 2011, Coda Payments specializes in content monetization solutions for gaming and digital content publishers.
The company’s products include Codapay, a payment platform which allows game publishers to accept a variety of payment methods on their own websites; Codashop, an in-game currency and content platform; xShop, which extends publishers’ reach by making their content available on a range of super-apps, e-commerce sites and other consumer-facing platforms; and Custom Commerce, a web store system that allows companies and creators to sell and process payments directly with consumers.
Coda Payments is trusted by over 300 publishers, including industry giants Activision Blizzard, Bigo, Electronic Arts, Riot Games, and Zynga, connecting them to over 10 million paying customers. The startup operates in over 60 markets, including Southeast Asia, China, Latin America and the US.
Headquartered in Singapore and backed by Smash Capital, Insight Partners, GIC, Apis Partners, and GMO Global Payment Fund, Coda Payments has been named one of the fastest-growing companies in APAC by the Financial Times, a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and the Best Payment Solutions Provider for the Gaming Industry (Global) by Global Brand Magazine.
Funding Societies
Established in 2015, Funding Societies is a regional fintech company that specializes in providing financing to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The company provides businesses with access to funding through a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending model. By connecting businesses seeking financing with individual and institutional investors, Funding Societies offers short-term, collateral-free loans, helping to bridge the SME financing gap in Southeast Asia.
Since its inception in 2015, Funding Societies says it has disbursed over S$5 billion (US$3.9 billion) in business financing through five million transactions, positively impacting over 100,000 SMEs across its five markets, namely Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. In recent years, the company has also made strategic milestones including its acquisition of regional digital payments platform CardUp and co-investment into Bank Index in Indonesia.
Funding Societies is backed by top VC firms including Peak XV Partners, Alpha JWC Ventures, SMBC Bank, BRI Ventures, VNG Corporation, Rapyd Ventures, Endeavor, EBDI, SGInnovate, Qualgro, and Golden Gate Ventures.
ShopBack Group
The ShopBack Group is a leading shopping, rewards, and payments platform in APAC, serving over 40 million shoppers across 11 markets. In 2023, the Group expanded its offerings into Germany, signaling its entry into the European market.
Driven by the vision to be the world’s most rewarding way to shop, ShopBack is dedicated to saving members money and time, while delivering delightful experiences with every purchase. The platform also enables merchants and brands to engage with their members in a cost-effective manner.
Founded in 2014, ShopBack claims it now powers over US$4 billion in annual sales for over 20,000 online and in-store partners. The startup claims it facilitates upwards of half a million transactions daily, providing value to both members and merchants through its innovative offerings. Notably, its payment solution, ShopBack Pay, offers members a convenient and rewarding payment option at checkout.
Sleek
Sleek is a comprehensive digital platform designed to simplify business management for SMEs. Launched in 2017 and operating in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and the UK, Sleek offers a one-stop solution for company incorporation, governance, accounting, payroll, and tax compliance, all managed online.
Through Sleek, businesses can incorporate a company entirely remotely, manage governance tasks such as company secretary filings 24/7, open business accounts, and sign documents digitally using Sleek’s eSignature tool, SleekSign. The platform aims to eliminate the complexities and inefficiencies of traditional administrative processes, allowing businesses to manage their compliance with Singapore’s ACRA and IRAS requirements, among others, more efficiently.
Sleek says it has served over 450,000 clients across 110 countries, and processed millions of bookkeeping transactions digitally. The startup reached profitability this month.
Thunes
Thunes is a global payment network that enables seamless, real-time money transfers across more than 130 countries and over 80 currencies.
Thunes’ proprietary Direct Global Network connects businesses directly to over 7 billion mobile wallets and bank accounts worldwide via more than 350 different payment methods, such as GCash, M-Pesa, Airtel, MTN, Orange, JazzCash, Easypaisa, AliPay and WeChat Pay. It serves major companies like Uber, Deliveroo, Grab, Sephora, Adidas and Meta, as well as banks and fintech startups, offering a fast, efficient, and secure way to move money globally.
Headquartered in Singapore, Thunes has offices in 14 locations, including Barcelona, Beijing, Dubai, London, Manila, Nairobi, Paris, San Francisco and Sao Paulo. In August 2024, the company reached a significant milestone, surpassing US$100 million in run-rate revenue. It also announced its entry into the US market through its acquisition of Tilia and is currently participating in the eCNY project in partnership with the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China.
Featured image credit: edited from freepik
