MoneySmart.sg raises US$10 mil in Series B round

By Digital News Asia June 8, 2017

Plans to launch into new markets in Asia Pacific; boost marketing efforts in Singapore and Indonesia
MoneySmart.sg is the first company that Kakaku.com Inc has invested in outside of Japan

MoneySmart.sg raises US$10 mil in Series B round

ONLINE personal finance portal, MoneySmart.sg, announced that it has raised S$14 million (US$10 million) in a Series B funding led by Kakaku.com Inc.

Kakaku.com Inc is an online service provider with a diverse service portfolio in multiple verticals, including shopping, food, travel, lifestyle and real estate.

Their services include Kakaku.com, Japan’s largest shopping support site that provides information on a wide variety of products and services; Tabelog, a user review and ranking site for restaurants, as well as Kinarino, an online lifestyle media and Time Design, a dynamic packaging provider.

MoneySmart.sg was founded in 2009 with the aim of simplifying personal finance decisions for all its users. After raising a Series A round of funding in 2015 that was led by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Media Fund, it has experienced growth in the following areas:

Product innovation – The company first started out helping Singaporeans compare various home loan packages online. Today, it curates and aggregates 17 different personal finance products, including credit cards, insurance, loans and bank accounts, on one digital marketplace, helping consumers make smarter decisions across many more products.

Visitor growth – MoneySmart.sg has grown over 40% since 2015. It now receives an average of one million monthly sessions, and is visited by an average of 700,000 unique people per month.

Market expansion – In November 2014, MoneySmart.sg bought over Indonesian counterpart, now known as DuitPintar.com. The buyout was a full equity acquisition with the latter taking up a minority shareholding stake in MoneySmart.sg. DuitPintar’s traffic data sees about 1.6 million monthly sessions. This year, MoneySmart.sg plans to launch into new markets in Asia Pacific, while boosting marketing efforts in Singapore and Indonesia.

Team growth – Since its Series A funding in 2015, MoneySmart.sg has more than doubled its employee count. To continue to meet business priorities, MoneySmart.sg intends to aggressively expand its team of developers, content writers, as well as business development and marketing specialists.

MoneySmart.sg founder and chief executive officer Vinod Nair said, “The synergy between both companies is a natural fit and stems from our shared values of putting the customer first. Having an investor like Kakaku who has gone through and overcome the many challenges in the comparison space, is extremely valuable and serves as a timely validation that we’re on the right track and will be a guiding light for our future endeavours."

MoneySmart.sg is the first company that Kakaku.com Inc has invested in outside of Japan, marking the beginning of their global business expansion.

Kakaku.com Inc Corporate Development Division senior executive officer Genta Sugihara said, “We believe that this strategic partnership with MoneySmart.sg is an investment into a rapidly growing market with many opportunities for synergies between our two companies. It’s an important first step in accelerating Kakaku.com Inc’s global business and we look forward to exploring similar opportunities with other businesses whose offerings complement our portfolio.”