Ex-banker eyes Myanmar with loans startup

Leon Qiu hails from Singapore, but he runs one of Myanmar’s most dynamic new tech startups. It’s a turn of events that seems to surprise even Qiu himself.

He admits that he’d never been to Myanmar until recently, when a high school friend invited him over to visit the newly opened-up country.

At the time, Qiu had already spent five years in banking across three firms in Singapore. But he saw “a lot of opportunity” in Myanmar – both in the nascent tech industry, and in working with his buddy, a serial web entrepreneur.

Leon Qiu / Photo credit: Daung Capital

Soon after, Qiu quit his job at Crédit Agricole and put up Daung Capital, a lending company focused on Myanmar. It’s the 33-year-old’s first startup.

“I guess coming from a private banking background, I was always interested in the lending business. So microcredit became the natural avenue,” Qiu tells Tech in Asia.

After launching in mid-2018, Daung now has three microloan products: motorcycle purchase loans, advance credit for salaried workers, and education loans for people wanting to upscale.

The startup last month pocketed an undisclosed amount of series A funding from investors including Singapore’s Majuven Ventures, which now values the business at US$12 million, Qiu reveals.

Shiny new motor

Describing Myanmar as an “exciting, frontier market” with a population of 54 million, Qiu explains the gap that his startup is going for. Myanmar “is 941 times bigger than Singapore, with its people scattered across the country. Because of this rurality, coupled with banks being family-owned and conservative, only 26% of the population have a bank account, 0.06% have a credit card. The financial exclusion hurts,” he explains.

An electric scooter in Bagan, Myanmar / Photo credit: 123RF

“Lack of access to credit means that the majority are not able to get proper transport to reach better jobs,” he adds. “It means borrowing from loan sharks at 10% a day to buy food, medicine, just to smoothen consumption patterns.”

As for educational loans, getting one could allow people to take a master’s degree in business or an English class that could net them promotions or secure better-paying jobs.

Daung’s interest rates are not exactly low. The monthly rate on the site’s cash loan calculator based on a Yangon resident’s average salary is 18%. But Qiu insists that it’s reasonable and competitive, saying the online service is “on the low end of the scale.”

Credit black hole

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