Fintech Startup GoBear Adds Digital Lending via Acquisition

Financial product comparison platform GoBear acquired AsiaKredit in a bid cover Asia’s alluring unbanked segment.

Singapore-based AsiaKredit was acquired at an undisclosed amount following an announcement by GoBear in May last year that it raised around $80 million to date from two Dutch companies – asset manager Aegon and VC firm Wallis Participaties.

AsiaKredit provides financial products to the underserved in the Philippines with a mobile app – pera247 – that boasts over 1 million loan applications. GoBear will look to leverage AsiaKredit’s risk management and automation capabilities in data-driven underwriting and collections to establish «end-to-end lending».

Credit access to consumers is due for increased importance in 2020 developing countries faced significant growth slowdowns, the firm said.

The fintech promise for the unbanked is to provide and manage sound lending to those that aren’t linked to the formal banking system – a market Bain & Company estimates has 296 million people in Southeast Asia alone. The region is home to most of GoBear’s businesses which have operations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Through its latest acquisition, GoBear will look to provide connect consumers to its over 100-strong banking network which includes the likes of HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citi.

The establishment of industry-leading lending business is a critical component of GoBear’s strategy to support our banking partners in providing loans to the many underserved consumers in Asia,» reiterated GoBear CEO Adrian Chng.