Aspire, based in Singapore, has announced an oversubscribed US $158 million Series B financing led by an unnamed global growth equity company. Aspire promises to deliver an all-in-one financial operating system (OS) for small and medium companies (SMEs) throughout Southeast Asia.
Hummingbird Ventures, Mass Mutual Ventures, Picus Capital, and AFG were among the new investors, as were DST Global, CE Innovation Fund, B Capital, and Fasanara Capital, as well as previous supporters Hummingbird Ventures, Mass Mutual Ventures, Picus Capital, and AFG.
Aside from that, 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 joined the round.
With the additional investment, Aspire hopes to expand its present markets while also laying the groundwork for serving expanding commercial clients throughout Southeast Asia.
Aspire was founded in January 2018 by Andrea Baronchelli, a former EVP and CMO of Lazada, with the goal of “reinventing SME banking in Southeast Asia” by providing a mobile-first digital account to a new generation of online entrepreneurs in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam.
AspireAccount, the company’s primary offering, serves to digital merchants around the area and can be opened online in only a few clicks. It is completely free and includes an instant credit limit for everyday company costs, as well as a virtual B2B payment acceptance system and other tools to assist SMEs in managing their cash flow.
Aspire has helped over 10,000 enterprises in Southeast Asia, according to a news release.
Aspire is a Y Combinator Winter 2018 graduate.
“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.”
Aspire raised $32.5 million in a Series A round of funding in August 2019, headed by Mass-Mutual Ventures (MMV) Southeast Asia, including Arc Labs and Y Combinator, Hummingbird Ventures, and Picus Capital. A US$9 million seed investment from Insignia Ventures Partners, Mark 2 Capital, and Hummingbird came before that.
