Banking’s next kingpins in SEA

Welcome to Tech in Asia’s Sunday newsletter, your weekend brief on the biggest moves in Asia’s tech and startup world. Not on the mailing list? Register here. Got a story tip? Send it to editors@techinasia.com.

In focus

For your weekend reading, we have:

• Putra Muskita on Thailand’s budding digibank revolution
• Indonesia’s digibank race: everyone’s making money, except one
• Nadiem Makarim’s US$600 million Chromebook headache

Hello reader,

Some use the term “tech company” interchangeably with “startup,” but that doesn’t apply for one area: digital banks.

Whether digital or conventional, you need tons of capital – and then some – to start a bank. It’s no surprise that conglomerates, state-owned companies, or tech giants are dominant in the sector, not startups.

The above holds true in Thailand, perhaps one of the still-nascent digibank markets in Southeast Asia. As my colleague Elyssa Lopez details in this week’s top pick, five applicants are vying for three digibank licenses in the country.

These players are all either local conglomerates or established foreign fintech firms.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

If a Thai digibank wants to see the future, though, it just needs to look at its neighbors.

In Indonesia, all digibanks but one are profitable. SeaBank is leading the pack in deposits and net interest income, outpacing rivals from fellow tech giants as well as incumbent banks like BCA.

The digibank revolution is also turning heads in the Philippines, though perhaps to a smaller extent. Tonik, one of the region’s few digibank startups, is targeting cash flow breakeven this year after cutting losses.

Whatever the market, all digibanks share the same motto: massive capital means massive upside. As if to prove the point, US digital bank Chime went public this week at an US$11.6 billion valuation.

Now everyone else wants their Chime moment.

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