How this fintech pioneer built a $100m payments business

When Aung Kyaw Moe started his company in Bangkok in 2003, money was tight. His family had to sell their personal possessions in order for him to scrape together enough cash to pay employees, and he had to refinance his car multiple times in order to pull together the funds to keep the business afloat.

Eighteen years later, that struggling startup is now 2C2P, a full-suite payments platform with over 400 employees across 10 countries in Asia and Europe. It offers a suite of services in the payment space, such as payment gateways, corporate card issuance, digital wallets, and remittance services.

Photo credit: 2C2P

2C2P achieved profitability in 2019 and brought in more than US$100 million in revenue in 2020. It has raised more than US$50 million in disclosed funding to date, with investors such as the International Finance Corporation, Arbor Ventures, and GMO-Z.com on its cap table. Plus, it counts companies such as Lazada, Thai Airways, Changi Airport Group, and Lenovo, alongside other global companies, among its clients.

According to Aung, those clients have been key in powering 2C2P’s growth and longevity.

Client satisfaction is key

Customers are vital to the success of any business, and the same holds true for 2C2P. One element behind its success so far is its steady base of clients, many of whom have been working with 2C2P for years.

In the early days, the company was able to build a name for itself by capturing an important market: online travel agencies and airlines. In the late 2000s, budget airlines were coming up, but many of them didn’t have the infrastructure to provide payment processing services for customers.

“We started helping these newer, smaller airlines with their payments process and became a category leader in that space,” says Aung.

Aung Kyaw Moe, founder of 2C2P / Photo credit: 2C2P

But it didn’t just stop at helping airlines process payments for business-to-consumer transactions such as the purchase of air tickets. 2C2P also rolled out other services that further supported them, facilitating payments to travel agents and insurance companies, as well as cargo space bookings.

From there, it expanded its offerings to other verticals and industries and became a regional name.

“Our business development team is constantly talking to clients to identify new opportunities,” shares Aung. This way, 2C2P is able to see how it can expand its offerings to address the needs of its clients and keep them within its ecosystem.

Focusing on solving real problems

This process of constant feedback ties in to the next factor behind 2C2P’s achievements: its approach to product development. Simply put, the company first ensures that any product it would build will meet a real need in the market before getting started on its development.

“Before we build, we already know that there is a potential customer ready to use it out there,” explains the CEO.

By focusing on building products that solve existing pain points for enterprises, 2C2P is able to ensure that resources – be it time, money, or manpower – are directed to where they will make the most impact and generate the most return. Thus, efforts aren’t wasted, allowing 2C2P to avoid pursuing ventures that don’t yield any gain and to maximize the returns on whatever it invests in new product lines.

This philosophy is what got 2C2P off the ground. Its very first product, a version of the “3D Secure” software used to authenticate online credit card transactions, was developed after Aung had received a call from a friend working at a bank who was looking for a more affordable solution to existing “3D Secure” solutions at the time.

The 2C2P office in Singapore / Photo credit: 2C2P

A more recent example of this approach in action was in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced retailers that were reliant on physical sales to move into the online space. In response to this, 2C2P recommended various in-house payment processing solutions that retailers could quickly adapt and integrate into their platforms, addressing their specific needs.

This proved particularly useful for small hotels in Thailand. Traditionally reliant on cash or credit card transactions, these establishments needed access to digital wallets in order to benefit from the Thai government’s “We Travel Together” scheme – which is how 2C2P came into the picture.

Aside from its variety of online payment options, 2C2P enabled social commerce businesses and other smaller enterprises to accept payments from customers through a secure payment link. This had the added benefit of helping 2C2P expand its pool of customers.

“We were able to help these hotels stay afloat during this period, and we got a new base of customers and revenue [in return],” says Aung.

All the right people

The other element of 2C2P’s growth story is the people behind the company. As a founder, Aung found that the best thing he could do for the company was to hire the right talent – and to let them do their work.

“At the beginning, I thought that I was Superman and that I could do everything,” he explains. “However, different people approach problems in different ways. And as the business grew, I understood that everyone is different and that having diversity in the team benefits the company.”

Aung with members of the 2C2P team / Photo credit: 2C2P

In his view, having a diversity of ideas and talent has enabled the company to continually develop and create new solutions to address the needs of customers. Plus, as 2C2P expanded regionally, putting his trust in the company’s country heads who are working on the ground became a necessary element for success.

“In order for us to have a significant market position in every country, we need to have the local knowledge, we need to understand how the local market works, we need to make sure we know the merchants, the partners, the suppliers,” says Aung. “I seriously value the local knowledge [of my employees], as it has helped 2C2P tremendously.”

As the CEO, he sees his role as a team captain overseeing the players on the field.

“I trust [my team] with how to tackle a particular problem or how to approach a particular customer in the country. My job is just to provide the right support and resources for them to carry it out,” he says.

This approach has served 2C2P well in its expansion journey, as it has successfully gained a decent slice of the market in the countries it operates in.

Beyond the region

While 2C2P’s achievements to date have been remarkable, Aung believes that the company still has much more that it can do. He envisions 2C2P becoming the gateway through which businesses and consumers in emerging markets like Southeast Asia can connect with the rest of the world.

“We want to help global companies sell to consumers in emerging markets efficiently, and for companies in emerging markets to sell to global consumers effectively,” he says. “We want to help businesses navigate the complex regulatory environments, currencies, cultures, and payment options in different markets all over the world.”

To do so, 2C2P is continually expanding its offerings. The company recently announced a partnership with “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) firm BillEase in the Philippines to bring card-free installment payments to a wider audience, and is adding more regional BNPL players to the platform to tap into the growing payments trend. This is one of the many initiatives 2C2P has in progress to broaden the pool of payment services it offers to merchants and consumers alike.

Aung paints the following scenario: A Dutch traveler in Southeast Asia being able to pay for goods during their trip using iDeal, the Dutch payment system for online transactions.

The CEO’s goal is that customers will be able to use whatever payment method of their choice, wherever they may be in the region.

“We aim to be the bridge between emerging markets and the rest of the world,” he concludes.

2C2P is a leading payments platform provider serving global enterprises in emerging markets.

Learn more about 2C2P on its website.

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.