Meet the rising startups in Asian fintech

Depending on who you ask, you’d get different answers on what’s the hottest area in tech. Fintech’s certainly in the conversation.

At Tech in Asia Singapore 2016, six startups who want to revolutionize the coin vied for the attention of investors at the Fintech Pitch Battle powered by DBS Bank.

Here’s a rundown of the finalists. The top startup, Bitmex, also won a place in KPMG’s Digital Village, an initiative that brings together members from the tech ecosystem to collaborate on innovative projects.

1st place: Bitmex

The BitMex team. From L to R: Arthur, Samuel, and Ben.

BitMex aspires to be a platform for anyone to bet on anything anywhere, even if you are an average Zhang in China who can only invest US$150 at any one time.

Right now, the startup only lets you bet on digital currencies, but in the future it can be expanded to stocks or any kind of derivative.

Since we last spoke to co-founder and ex-bank trader Arthur Hayes in December 2015, it had accumulated 3,400 registered users and US$250 million in trading volume. That number has since ballooned to 5,300 registered users and US$650 million in volume today. It has made US$360,000 in revenue so far on a 0.05% trading fee, and has become profitable on less than US$200,000 in investor funding.

Now, it’s raising US$2 million from investors for aggressive expansion. The startup is available everywhere but the United States due to regulatory reasons.

Read more: He left a cushy finance job to build the Goldman Sachs of Bitcoin

2nd place: Financio

Financio is an online accounting software similar to Xero but specially built for small businesses in Malaysia. It’s also a marketplace of sorts, letting you find merchants and partners to work with.

Other key features include an automatic form generator for businesses to meet their goods and services tax (GST) obligations, and the ability to create and send invoices quickly.

It even has chat and collaboration functions, letting users send messages or files to customers or suppliers. The company’s founded by Malaysian engineer Sheau Jye Eng.

3rd place: HedgeSPA

Bernard Lim of HedgeSPA.

HedgeSPA provides analytics for institutional funds to protect themselves against tumbling economic conditions. It offers advice on asset allocation under various scenarios, claiming to be able to lessen asset drawdowns by 75 percent.

The startup was founded by Bernard Lee, a former managing director with asset manager BlackRock. “We do not replace the pilot. We offer better avionics,” says Bernard, in response to a question about whether HedgeSPA is a robo-trader.

The company has 1,000 trial users and 10,000 recipients of its market analysis so far.

And now, here are the rest of the finalists.

FundRevo

FundRevo is a crowdfunding site for businesses similar to OurCrowd from Israel and MoolahSense from Singapore. It allows mass market consumers to provide loans to firms.

Unlike OurCrowd and MoolahSense though, up to half of the money for a funding campaign must come from a traditional lending firm. FundRevo has processed US$2.2 million in loans so far.

MeXBT

MeXBT lowers the cost of cross-border payments using the blockchain. While headquartered in Singapore, it’s also active in Mexico. The startup charges a 1 percent fee per transaction, with transfer of funds occurring in less a day. It has 6,000 users doing US$500,000 in international transfers from inception. It’s aiming to raise US$1 million from investors.

Simple2Trade

Simple2Trade wants to be the Khan Academy of trading by providing video tutorials. More than that, it also hopes to let novice learners glean lessons from other traders by imitating them, as well as competing with fellow traders.