Sea Group injects $172.5m in its Singapore digibank

Photo credit: Reuters

Sea Limited has invested US$172.5 million in its Singapore-based digital bank subsidiary MariBank, according to regulatory filings obtained from VentureCap Insights.

MariBank, which was rolled out in March this year on an invite-only basis, is Singapore’s third digital-native bank. It offers personal savings accounts, business accounts, and business loan products.

Sea’s injection follows a series of moves from rivals that have been heating up Southeast Asia’s digibank race.

Earlier this month, Grab put US$101 million into GXS Bank. Launched last year, it is the Singapore digibank formed by the Grab-Singtel consortium.

Trust Bank, another Singapore-based offering formed by Standard Chartered and FairPrice Group, has amassed over 24 million transactions and aims to break even by 2025. Within a month of its September 2022 launch, Trust Bank counted 650,000 weekly active users.

Digital bank operator Tyme has also launched in the Philippines, where Sea is present through SeaBank. The latter is also available in Indonesia.

The first quarter of 2023 was Sea’s second profitable quarter in a row. The company recorded US$87.3 million in net income during this period, a significant recovery from US$580.1 million in net losses during Q1 2022.

See also: Sea Group’s financial health in 8 charts