Asian Fintech GoBear Reportedly Lays Off 22 Employees, after Securing $17 Million in Capital in May 2020
Asian Fintech firm GoBear, which secured $17 million in capital in May 2020 to expand operations, has reportedly decided to lay off 22 staff members – which includes 6 workers based in Singapore. GoBear’s management has also laid off employees based in Ukraine, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The company claims that its business has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting economic challenges. The Fintech firm has announced these layoffs after it recently appointed its new chief financial officer, Kent Huang, who has been working from GoBear’s Singapore offices. Earlier this year, GoBear, which offers which offers a financial products comparison website, confirmed that it had acquired AsiaKredit, a Singapore-based digital lender. The amount paid for the acquisition had not been shared publicly. GoBear’s acquisition of AsiaKredit came after the Fintech company secured $80 million in capital in May 2019. At the time of the acquisition, Adrian Chng, CEO at GoBear had stated:
“The establishment of an 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.”
Chng added:
“With AsiaKredit’s sophisticated data-driven underwriting and collections capability, the acquisition will allow GoBear to accelerate strategic plans by giving us access to end-to-end digital lending capabilities.”
Founded in 2014, GoBear claims to be Asia’s leading financial supermarket whose purpose is to improve financial health. The platform empowers consumers with the know-how, tools, and financial products to meet their needs. In August 2020, GoBear teamed up with UnionBank to launch lending as a service products in the Philippines. Also in August, GoBear revealed that it would be powering Netcore Solutions’ marketing automation and engagement campaigns. Sponsored Links by DQ Promote
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Asian Fintech GoBear Reportedly Lays Off 22 Employees, after Securing $17 Million in Capital in May 2020

June 16, 2020
AsiaKredit, the leading digital consumer lender service provider in the country. Is projecting a significant boost in its business operations in the Philippines especially with the entry of a low-touch regime in financial transacting under the anticipated new normal. In an interview, Michael Singh, co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AsiaKredit shares...
June 16, 2020
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Feby dela Peña, herself unemployed in Dubai because of the economic shutdown due to the pandemic, launched her own Ayuda project to feed jobless migrants, offering 200 free meals each day to the hungry of Dubai, all of them foreigners, like her own family. Michael Singh, co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AsiaKredit
AsiaKredit, the leading digital consumer lender service provider in the country. Is projecting a significant boost in its business operations in the Philippines especially with the entry of a low-touch regime in financial transacting under the anticipated new normal. In an interview, Michael Singh, co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AsiaKredit shares that while their business model may not be totally immune from potential defaults as a result of economic challenges brought about by the global pandemic, digital consumer lending will certainly be “more resilient” than other counterpart industries. Q: Given the effects of the COVID19 pandemic and the emergence of the so-called new normal even in the way people do their banking transactions, how do you think this will impact your business? Any new offers that leverage on contactless financial  transactions? MS (Michael Singh): Like almost every sector of the global economy, we have seen some impact as a result of COVID-19, but our business model has proven to be resilient. We do anticipate that this will spur greater interest and demand for digital financial products and services. As a market-leading advocate for responsible lending, we also believe that pera247 will be well placed to build further trust with consumers and meet the growing demand. Q: Do you have estimates by how much your business will grow post COVID? MS: As digital financial products and services will be more convenient to access, we do anticipate a growth in demand from consumers. However, we are unable to disclose any financial projections. Q: More and more people will be in dire need of emergency finances post COVID. How will you ensure that you will be able to manage a healthy default portfolio level? MS: Our business is built on a strong foundation of alternative data, enabling us to better assess and price risk when providing loans to underserved consumers. The greater demand for digital financial products and services will provide us with a more complete digital footprint of the customer to refine our models for default and repayment. While we might see an increase in default rates at first, these losses are actually an investment to a refine our risk scorecard. By gaining data and insights earlier, we can have a better understanding of the new normal faster than other providers. Q:  Do you have enough funds to cover for the anticipated increase in consumer loan demand? MS: The recent fund raise by GoBear of US$17m is being used to accelerate our transformation into a full-fledged financial services platform. This includes expansion across three growth pillars: an online financial supermarket, digital insurance brokerage, and digital lending. Very recently, AsiaKredit was acquired by GoBear, Asia’s leading financial supermarket. The acquisition bolsters GoBear’s plans to expand its business and regional reach, following its announcement in 2019 of having raised some US$80Million in fresh funding. It also accelerated GoBear’s plans to drive growth through digital lending. AsiaKredit, on the other hand, provides consumer finance products to underserved consumers in the Philippines. Through its flagship mobiles app pera247, the company has processed over 1 million loan applications via fast and convenient lines not provided by traditional banks. With robust risk management and automation, credit assessment decisions take place in minutes and time to cash disbursement in hours bringing AsiaKredit more than 100x growth loans disbursed over the last two years.

Leading digital lender projects significant growth post-COVID

Singapore-based fintech startup GoBear has raised $17 million from returning investors Walvis Participaties, a Dutch venture capital firm, and Aegon N.V., a life insurance and asset management provider. The funding brings GoBear’s total funding so far to $97 million, and will be used to expand its consumer financial services platform, which is available in seven Asian markets: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Founder and CEO Adrian Chng told TechCrunch that GoBear will focus on what it calls its “three growth pillars”: an online financial supermarket that evolved from the company’s financial products aggregator/comparison service; an online insurance brokerage; and its digital lending business, which it recently expanded by acquiring consumer lending platform AsiaKredit . The company has also added three new executives over the past few months: chief information technology officer Valeriy Gasratov; chief strategy officer Jinnee Lim as Chief Strategy Officer; and Mike Singh from AsiaKredit as its new chief lending officer. GoBear originally launched in 2015 as a metasearch engine, before transitioning into financial services. The company now works with over 100 financial partners, including banks and insurance providers, and says its platform has been used by over 55 million people to search for more than 2,000 personal financial products. The startup serves consumers who don’t have credit cards or other access to traditional credit building tools. Similar to other fintech companies that focus on underbanked populations, GoBear aggregates and analyzes alternative sources of data to judge lending risk, including patterns in consumer behavior. For example, Chng said if a loan application is filled out in less than a minute, it is more likely to be fraudulent, and applications made between 8:30PM and midnight are less risky than ones made between 2AM to 5AM. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Chng said GoBear has been gross margin positive since the end of 2019. Interest in travel insurance has declined, but the company has continued to see demand for other insurance products and lending. Its online insurance brokerage has grown its average order by 52% over the last three months, and the company has seen 50% year-over-year growth from its loan products. There are other fintech companies in Asia that overlap with some of the services that GoBear offers, like comparison platform MoneySmart, CompareAsiaGroup and Grab Financial Group. In terms of competition, Chng told TechCrunch that not only is the market opportunity in Asia huge (he said there are 400 million underbanked people across GoBear’s seven markets), but the company also differentiates with its three core services, which are all interconnected and draw on the same data sources to score credit. Chng anticipates that the pandemic will spur more financial institutions to begin digitizing their products and looking for partners like GoBear to help them manage risk. In turn, that will make more financial institutions open to using non-traditional data to score credit, enabling underbanked markets to have increased access to financial products. “The momentum is here. I think now is the time for tech and data to transform financial services,” he said. “As a platform, we are really looking for partners to come with us for the next phase of growth and investment. I feel positive even with COVID-19, because I think that we will have more acceleration, and the opportunity to change people’s lives and benefit them and investors by solving tough problems will only increase.”

GoBear raises $17 million to expand its consumer financial services for Asian markets

Singapore-based fintech startup GoBear has raised $  17 million from returning investors Walvis Participaties, a Dutch venture capital firm, and Aegon N.V., a life insurance and asset management provider. The funding brings GoBear’s total funding so far to $  97 million, and will be used to expand its consumer financial services platform, which is available in seven Asian markets: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Founder and CEO Adrian Chng told TechCrunch that GoBear will focus on what it calls its “three growth pillars”: an online financial supermarket that evolved from the company’s financial products aggregator/comparison service; an online insurance brokerage; and its digital lending business, which it recently expanded by acquiring consumer lending platform AsiaKredit . The company has also added three new executives over the past few months: chief information technology officer Valeriy Gasratov; chief strategy officer Jinnee Lim as Chief Strategy Officer; and Mike Singh from AsiaKredit as its new chief lending officer. GoBear originally launched in 2015 as a metasearch engine, before transitioning into financial services. The company now works with over 100 financial partners, including banks and insurance providers, and says its platform has been used by over 55 million people to search for more than 2,000 personal financial products. The startup serves consumers who don’t have credit cards or other access to traditional credit building tools. Similar to other fintech companies that focus on underbanked populations, GoBear aggregates and analyzes alternative sources of data to judge lending risk, including patterns in consumer behavior. For example, Chng said if a loan application is filled out in less than a minute, it is more likely to be fraudulent, and applications made between 8:30PM and midnight are less risky than ones made between 2AM to 5AM. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Chng said GoBear has been gross margin positive since the end of 2019. Interest in travel insurance has declined, but the company has continued to see demand for other insurance products and lending. Its online insurance brokerage has grown its average order by 52% over the last three months, and the company has seen 50% year-over-year growth from its loan products. There are other fintech companies in Asia that overlap with some of the services that GoBear offers, like comparison platform MoneySmart, CompareAsiaGroup and Grab Financial Group. In terms of competition, Chng told TechCrunch that not only is the market opportunity in Asia huge (he said there are 400 million underbanked people across GoBear’s seven markets), but the company also differentiates with its three core services, which are all interconnected and draw on the same data sources to score credit. Chng anticipates that the pandemic will spur more financial institutions to begin digitizing their products and looking for partners like GoBear to help them manage risk. In turn, that will make more financial institutions open to using non-traditional data to score credit, enabling underbanked markets to have increased access to financial products. “The momentum is here. I think now is the time for tech and data to transform financial services,” he said. “As a platform, we are really looking for partners to come with us for the next phase of growth and investment. I feel positive even with COVID-19, because I think that we will have more acceleration, and the opportunity to change people’s lives and benefit them and investors by solving tough problems will only increase.”

Lazada is a Southeast Asia-focused eCommerce retailer that offers a shopping experience with brands and types to choose from, such as mobile phones, tablets, home appliances, toys, and accessories. The company provides digital capabilities to the eCommerce industry. It operates its services in countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It was founded in 2012 and is based in Singapore. In December 2022, Alibaba Group acquired a majority stake in Lazada at a valuation of $1.13B.

Lazada

AsiaKredit 's partnership with e-commerce retailers such as Lazada comes on the back of a surge in e-commerce transactions in the Philippines .

Lazada partners AsiaKredit to extend financing to underbanked Filipinos through e-commerce

GoBear

Jobs DB

BlueScope Steel

Telstra

Merrill

Bain & Company

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This collection contains companies that provide alternative means for obtaining a loan for personal or business use and companies that provide software to lenders for the application, underwriting, funding or loan collection process. 

Digital Lending

Acquired

AsiaKredit is a digital consumer lender focused on Southeast Asia. AsiaKredit has developed pera247, a digital lending solution that aims to provide unsecured small-ticket, short-term consumer loans for up to 90 days to the area's underbanked population. On May 4, 2020, AsiaKredit was acquired by GoBear. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Name	Work History	Title	Status
Adrian Chng	GoBear, Jobs DB, BlueScope Steel, Telstra, Merrill, and Bain & Company	Founder	Current
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Name	Adrian Chng	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more
Work History	GoBear, Jobs DB, BlueScope Steel, Telstra, Merrill, and Bain & Company				Subscribe to see more
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