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USD 12 billion of capital for ASEAN FinTech companies

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced today that the 380 participating investors enrolled for the Singapore FinTech Festival’s deal-making platform, MATCH, have indicated intentions to invest up to USD 6.2 billion in ASEAN enterprises next year. An additional USD 6 billion has been earmarked over the subsequent two years.

FinTech in ASEAN

Money pouring in matches the hype with which FinTech is regarded in the region. Previously, we reported on ASEAN’s voracious appetite FinTech, as well as spinning out supporting infrastructure and business regulatory environments to support the technology. Singapore and Indonesia are reportedly the biggest leaders paving the way for FinTech in ASEAN.

Managing Partner, EY ASEAN and Singapore, Max Loh, said, “On the back of fast-growing economies, a digital-savvy young middle-income population and high mobile and internet penetration rates, we see a thriving entrepreneur and startup ecosystem across ASEAN particularly in the technology and FinTech sectors. Having said that, many SMEs continue to face challenges in seeking access to funding or opportunities to connect with the right investors.”

Hence, it is no surprise that the Singapore FinTech Festival is back for the second year running. Last year alone, more than 30 000 FinTech players, technopreneurs, policy makers, financial industry leaders, investors and academics gathered at the Festival. It is considered the world’s largest FinTech festival and global platform for the FinTech community.

This year, participants will represent more than 100 countries. More than 160 global luminaries and 400 exhibitors will also be present. An exciting line up of conferences, hackathons, awards and networking sessions are some of the events participants can look forward to.

Money Money Money

A new component of this year’s Festival is MATCH (Meet ASEAN’s Talents and Champions). Spelling out exactly what it aims to do, the platform curates and brings together promising next-generation ASEAN enterprises with global private equity and venture capital. The matchmaking exercise was conducted between May to September 2018.

More than 17 000 matches have been generated between 380 participating investors and 840 enterprises.

Interestingly, it was startups and growth stage enterprises which participating investors were most keen on. Close to 60% of the intended ASEAN investment allocation for 2019 was centred around FinTech, healthcare and MedTech, and ICT sectors. Capital which investors planned to deploy was higher than what participating ASEAN enterprises demanded in financing.

Deputy Managing Director of MAS, Jacqueline Loh, said, “The 2018 MATCH exercise demonstrates the upward momentum in both the supply of and demand for growth capital in ASEAN. The interest of the global investment community in our region is promising. MATCH presents a great opportunity to ensure that private capital is deployed towards the development of promising ASEAN enterprises. MAS is committed to supporting this process.”

Winning FinTech Innovations

At the beginning of this month, MAS also announced the 60 finalists of the Global FinTech Hackcelerator and FinTech Awards. Their innovative solutions will be showcased at the Singapore FinTech Festival.

Mr Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer of MAS said they received an increase in the number of high-quality submissions from FinTech start-ups this year. Concurrently, FinTech talent in the region has seen substantial growth in numbers.

Past year’s finalists have gained from the exposure and connections at the competition. For example, one company which pitched a blockchain technology to deliver international aid has since secured €1 million in investment from both Enterprise Ireland and SGInnovate

Singapore FinTech Festival is organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore in partnership with The Association of Banks in Singapore and in collaboration with SingEx Holdings.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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