Founders of SG personal finance firm Seedly depart

Kenneth Lou and Tee-Ming Chew, co-founders of Singapore-based Seedly, have announced their departure from the personal finance company.

Seedly founders (from left) Chew Tee Ming and Kenneth Lou / Photo credit: Seedly

The founders have handed over the reins to Yeap Ming Feng, Seedly’s marketing manager, and Ian Hutchinson, SingSaver’s general manager. SingSaver is a unit of Seedly’s parent firm Hyphen Group, which was formerly known as CompareAsiaGroup.

Established in 2016, Seedly helps users track their spending habits through its app and has developed a community centered around personal finance.

In 2018, ShopBack acquired Seedly for around US$2.1 million, according to VentureCap Insights. But by October 2020, Seedly was sold to Hong Kong-based CompareAsiaGroup in after a change in ShopBack’s strategy.

When ShopBack snapped up Seedly, it was focused on cashback and wanted to apply this to the finance vertical. But then the former diversified and sought to go into physical retail cashback.

Meanwhile, CompareAsiaGroup benefitted from access to Seedly’s millennial demographic.

See also: Why Seedly is moving on from ShopBack and joining CompareAsiaGroup

“When Tee-Ming Chew and I started Seedly from our dorm rooms in National University of Singapore, we honestly didn’t expect to have built one of Singapore’s largest personal finance communities and to be humbled enough to run it for seven years with some amazing team members,” Lou said in a LinkedIn post.

While the duo are currently taking a break from work, they are looking to launch a new venture soon.