AsiaCollect raises US$4.5 million to date

By Digital News Asia July 6, 2018

Aims to automate and streamline consumer debt collection in Southeast Asia
New capital from will be used to support growth initiatives

AsiaCollect raises US$4.5 million to date

ASIACOLLECT, a provider of integrated Credit Management Services (CMS) in Southeast Asia, has raised US$4.5 million (RM18.21 million) to date after closing its recent investment round led by global technology investment firm SIG Asia Investments.

Dymon Asia Ventures, the venture capital arm of Dymon Asia Capital, a Singapore-based alternative investment management firm, returned to co-invest in this round after investing US$1 million in AsiaCollect’s pre-series A equity round in August last year.

AsiaCollect delivers maximum CMS efficiency for its clients through an integrated product offering, which includes CMS Outsourcing, CMS Advisory Services, Debt Purchasing, and Software-As-A-Service (SaaS).

The company’s proprietary technology streamlines and automates a majority of debt collection processes, while minimising the need for field collection, which has traditionally been associated with high reputational risk for lenders and a distressing experience for consumers.

AsiaCollect chief executive officer and co-founder Tomasz Borowski, said, “We are thrilled to have SIG on board as they have a unique track record of picking winners in financial services. As we move into the purchasing segment of the value chain, we are increasingly attracting significant investor interest, both from an equity and debt standpoint.

“Moreover, investors view the debt collections business as a classic counter-cyclical play, which is becoming increasingly important as we move into what looks like the peak of this cycle.”

“Over the medium to long-term, purchasing NPL portfolios off banks’ balance sheets is likely to be a major driver of revenue growth for AsiaCollect. We have already purchased our first portfolio from a large financial institution in Vietnam, and we are focused on executing on many more such transactions going forward.

“We are supported by a highly experienced data science team in Ukraine who brings with them strong knowledge and expertise in pricing portfolios through business cycles. We will continue to leverage on this and differentiate ourselves in a market where there is a dearth of professional debt collectors and purchasers and that is dominated by fly-by-night operators,” added Borowski.

AsiaCollect will use the new funds to support growth initiatives, including client acquisition in its core markets, enhancements to its SaaS solution, expansion of its collections’ infrastructure and teams, and to continue purchasing NPL portfolios.

AsiaCollect has seen sustained and rapid growth since its 2016 launch and is currently managing over US$40 million in assets of over 10 financial institutions and digital lenders across Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

The company estimates that there will be over S$45 billion of consumer NPLs generated in its core markets of Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines in the next five years.

AsiaCollect currently helps bank and non-bank lenders recover their NPLs by reaching out to customers through automated SMSs, interactive voice recordings, and predictive dialling systems.

The aim is to increase not only the likelihood of reaching the customer but also the recovery rates for each targeted customer by employing psychometric analysis that allows operators to communicative effectively with different personality types.

In addition to carrying out collections on behalf of lenders, AsiaCollect also licenses its technology using a SaaS model and provides bespoke advice for clients with nascent in-house collections processes.

Led by an international leadership team with decades of experience in CMS and consumer finance in emerging markets, AsiaCollect secured its seed capital from FORUM, the largest fintech venture builder in Emerging Asia, and Fintonia Group, a leading early-stage fintech investor in Southeast Asia.

Headquartered in Singapore, the company is active in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.