MoneySmart grows revenue by 26% in 2025, but AI threatens margins

As more people search for information via large language models (LLMs) rather than traditional search engines like Google, MoneySmart Group is rethinking its identity as a financial comparison site.

“We need to reframe the role that we play in our customers’ lives… just being a comparison site – that’s on its last legs,” founder and CEO Vinod Nair tells Tech in Asia.

MoneySmart Group founder and CEO Vinod Nair / Photo credit: MoneySmart

He says the company is set to announce new products and services that reflect this new proposition in November, though he’s tight-lipped on the details.

Founded in 2009, MoneySmart operates the eponymous financial comparison sites in Singapore and Hong Kong.

On its sites, consumers can compare dozens of credit cards – along with personal and home loans, insurance, and brokerages – and make purchases. The firm partners with financial institutions like banks and insurance companies and earns a commission each time a product is sold.

In 2025, revenue of Catapult Ventures Pte Ltd, the parent entity of MoneySmart that includes its Singapore and Hong Kong operations, grew 25.6% from S$40.7 million (US$30.5 million) to S$50.1 million (US$38.3 million) from the previous year, per its latest audited financial statement.

The company ended the year with a net profit, reversing net losses made in 2024.

Nair says the firm increased revenue from partners last year. A decline in transactions related to employee stock option plans recorded between 2024 and 2025 also contributed to the result.

Tough 2026

This year has so far been more challenging for MoneySmart, and Nair expects revenue and profitability to fall in “absolute” terms.

He says the firm’s margins have already fallen as it increased spend on paid marketing to offset the drop in traffic from Google search while investing in new products and marketing models.

MoneySmart is also directing more resources to grow its presence on social media platforms, so it can remain “the top-of-mind brand that people come to,” Nair adds.

New investments are driven in part by features like Google’s AI mode, which aggregates and displays content and answers user queries directly on the search results page. As a result, fewer users are visiting individual webpages.

“As you know, we’re pretty big on SEO [search engine optimization], so that has cannibalized some of our traffic as a result,” Nair explains.

AI and other expenses

Shutting down Bubblegum

No intention to go public