SG fintech firm Bambu shut down after missing profit targets, says founder

The Bambu team / Photo credit: Bambu

On December 31 last year, Singapore-based fintech startup Bambu had shut down. This is hardly unusual: Startups shut down all the time, especially in an economic downturn – except the company was moving closer to profitability earlier in the year.

“We had large clients and we were getting there,” Ned Phillips, founder and CEO of the B2B fintech firm, told Tech in Asia in an interview.

A source close to the company told Tech in Asia that an investor “pulled the rug because the market was down and the burn wasn’t reducing enough.”

Phillips, however, said that the shutdown was a joint decision between the management and investors. They had decided that if Bambu did not go into the black by the end of the year, it would close shop, he added.

Bambu, which enables financial institutions to offer robo-advisory products, ultimately fell short.

“We couldn’t get there in the timeline,” Phillips said.

‘Could have been a huge success’

Founded in 2016 by Phillips, Luke Janssen, and Aki Ranin, Bambu raised at least US$13.4 million from Franklin Templeton Investments, Wavemaker Partners, Octava, and others.

Although Bambu is more of a software provider, it rode on a surge in interest in robo-advisory services. The sector, however, has since cooled. Local players MoneyOwl and Smartly have been shut down. Even US banking giant JPMorgan wound down its robo-advisor.

The surviving local services – StashAway, Syfe, AutoWealth, and Endowus – are still reportedly unprofitable.

Phillips attributes Bambu’s closure chiefly to the macroeconomic landscape and ballooning interest rates, which made it difficult for the firm to scout for more enterprise deals.

He added that Bambu’s profitability plan hinged on improving its product while generating more scalable and recurring revenue.

One of last year’s biggest initiatives was a product called Bambu Go. Launched in November, it provided financial institutions with a customizable robo-advisor, which they could, in turn, offer to mass retail investors.

Finding customers didn’t seem to be an issue. Phillips said that Bambu’s tech was sold to its clients as part of its liquidation process, and that none of its customers were affected.