6 fintech startups from Asia that excited us in 2016

Photo credit: adiruch / 123RF.

Fintech is going strong in Asia as the year draws to a close. According to the Pulse of Fintech Q3 2016 report by global audit and advisory firm KPMG, venture capital funding in Asian financial technology companies increased, reaching US$1.2 billion – outpacing even the US, where VC investment totaled US$0.9 billion.

These are startups that either had a cool idea or a particularly good year.

It should be noted that the number of deals was smaller in Asia than the US and Europe (35 versus 96 and 38, respectively). And the height of investment can be traced to some mammoth deals in China and less to other markets in Asia.

But there is interest in the region, particularly since hubs like Singapore have decided to go all-out supporting fintech. Singapore’s central bank, for example, announced in the middle of the year that it would create a regulatory sandbox in which fintech startups can try out their ideas. More recently, in November, it released financial data as APIs for developers and app creators to use in their services.

Here are six Asian fintech companies that drew our gaze this year, listed in alphabetical order. The list is meant to be indicative rather than exhaustive; the picks are not meant to be the best fintech startups of their markets. They are startups that either had a cool idea or a particularly good year. They also serve as a demonstration of the different problems fintech is trying to solve in different countries, from financial advice to blockchain applications to different forms of online payment.

Alpaca (Japan)

Alpaca was born out of CEO Yoshi Yokokawa’s experience in financial markets and the desire to build his own business after he quit his job at Lehman Brothers. With his team, Yoshi created an artificial intelligence-driven service for image recognition. After selling that product to Japanese electronics company Kyocera, Alpaca turned its tech towards trading advice.

Yoshi (left) and the Alpaca team.

Through its products, AlpacaScan and AlpacaAlgo, the startup helps you make trading decisions by monitoring financial data and even create your own algorithms by “teaching” the system about your successful trades. The startup says this gets your error-prone emotions out of the way of your trading.

In Japan’s fast growing fintech market, Alpaca addresses part of a key financial problem in the country: the lack of financial literacy.

BankBazaar (India)

BankBazaar is an aggregator for loans, credit cards, and insurance. It tracks financial products from more than 30 partners and claims to have over 5 million customers in India, serving 1,336 cities.

It has raised more than US$79 million so far, and its investors include Amazon and Sequoia Capital.

The startup started the year with a bang, breaking out of its home market to set up an office in Singapore. Its value lies in addressing the traditional system’s inefficiencies – especially in helping small businesses and individuals that have difficulty accessing financial services.

Coins (Philippines)

Dianrong (China)

MC Payment (Singapore)

Omise (Thailand)