Thai finance media and robo-advisor raises $3.2m from prominent investors

The Finnomena team with investors.

Finnomena, a Thai fintech startup, aims to educate the country with Thai-language content about finance. It also offers investment advice through Nter, a robo-advisor which lets investors create an investment plan and put money into mutual funds.

The startup has just raised a US$3.2 million series A round. Prominent backers of the round include Krungsri Finnovate, the US$30 million venture capital arm of Thailand’s fifth-largest bank; venture capital firm 500 Tuk Tuks; and telecommunications firm Benchachinda, which was started by the founding family of Dtac, the country’s third-largest telco.

Finnomena claims to have one million views a week across all its platforms, though it did not reveal more. SimilarWeb estimates its website had 150,000 views in August. It achieved 54,000 Facebook video views the same month, while its Android app is ranked 151st in the finance category in Thailand as of September 25, according to App Annie.

Finnomena declined to give a detailed breakdown of its traffic numbers.

A number of finance media and robo-advisor startups exist in Southeast Asia. AutoWealth, StashAway, and Smartly (which just launched this week) automatically allocate investor money into exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

In the financial comparison space, where web and mobile traffic is crucial to success, you have MoneySmart, iMoney, and more.

Thailand is developing into a fintech hub in its own right, with seven startups in the category raising money so far this year, according to Tech in Asia’s data. However, Singapore saw 32 deals in the same period, while Indonesia has 17.

Finnomena was a part of Dtac Accelerate, the startup acceleration program of Dtac, Thailand’s third largest telco. 70 percent of startups who have graduated from the program have raised follow-on funding, its website says.