Thailand’s Omise raises $17.5m to take its payment service to more Southeast Asian markets

Omise, a Thailand-based online payment enabler, today announced it raised US$17.5 million in series B funding to further expand in Asia.

The round was led by Japanese venture capital firm SBI Investment, with participation from undisclosed partners. Existing investors Sinar Mas Digital Ventures of Indonesia, Ascend Money of Thailand, and Singapore’s Golden Gate Ventures completed the roster.

The company boasts of a very secure payment gateway.

It is one of the largest series B rounds ever for a fintech company in Southeast Asia, according to the Tech in Asia Database. It brings the startup’s total funding to over US$25 million to date.

Omise actually started as an ecommerce platform in 2013, but its founders Jun Hasegawa and Donnie Harinsut had a hard time looking for a payment provider. So the team decided to create one themselves. “From that point, we decided to do a 180-degree turn and focus on building the payment gateway instead,” Donnie tells Tech in Asia.

The company offers a set of APIs and tools that allows merchants to accept payments online. It charges clients on a pay-per-use basis – at 3.65 percent of transactions. Donnie says they now cater to thousands of merchants across Thailand and Japan, and some notable clients include Thai telecommunications and cable TV conglomerate True, budget airline Nok Air, and Minor International, one of Asia’s largest hospitality and leisure companies.

What sets it apart from other payment platforms? Donnie explains Omise takes security “very seriously.” It’s the first payment gateway to receive PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) certification in Thailand.

PCI DSS is a set of standards designed to ensure that companies that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. You need to be PCI compliant to be able to transact with Visa, Master, and other credit card brands.

Much of the financing will be going toward Omise’s expansion in Southeast Asia. The company has offices in Indonesia and Singapore but hasn’t started offering its services in those markets. It plans to do so by the end of this year, Donnie says.

The company sees a huge opportunity in the region. Citing data from research firm Bain & Co, it points out that only about 3 percent of Southeast Asian retail sales are online, compared to 14 percent in developed ecommerce markets such as China and the US. “It is expected that online sales in the region will grow 12 times over the next five years to reach US$70 billion by 2020,” the company says in a statement.