US$2bil available for fintech startups through Singapore Investor Summit

• Most of the investors came from Singapore (59%), followed by China (9%)
• Most of the startups came from Singapore (36%), followed by India (17%) and US (8%)

OVER 1,000 attendees, comprising investors and fintech startups, turned up at the Singapore Fintech Festival’s Investor Summit or “Deal Day”, and up to US$2 billion (RM8.3 billion) of capital was made available for the startups.

The Investor Summit was the finale of the four-month long matchmaking programme to provide opportunities for fintech startups to access funding from local and global investors.

More than 1,000 fintech startups and 400 investors indicated interest to participate in the process and 525 connections were made among interested parties.

The Investor Summit, powered by Ernst & Young (EY), is organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and The Association of Banks in Singapore, as part of the 2017 Singapore Fintech Festival.

The Investor Summit wraps up the week-long Singapore Fintech Festival which saw more than 30,000 participants from over 100 countries.

MAS chief fintech officer Sopnendu Mohanty (pic, right) said, “The fundraising process for startups can be a long and arduous process. On the other side of the table, the challenge for investors is to generate quality prospects aligned to their investment objectives.

“Deal Day aims to provide a platform for fintech startups to connect to investors. We want to enhance access to funding for startups and improve the quality and quantity of fintech investment deals in Singapore.

“I am delighted that we have managed to facilitate a considerable number of matches, and kickstarted promising conversations. I am hopeful that concrete deals will emerge from these connections.”

The matchmaking programme provided a perspective on the funding and fintech landscape in Singapore and Asean:

• Most of the investors came from Singapore (59%), followed by China (9%) and Indonesia (6%).
• Most of the fintech startups came from Singapore (36%), followed by India (17%) and US (8%).
• From the pool of participating investors, the key areas of interest were on data analytics (70%), blockchain (65%), lending applications (64%), payment solutions (61%) and regulatory technology (regtech) (56%).
• The top solutions offered by participating fintech startups largely aligned with investors’ interests as they are similarly in the areas of payments (20%), lending (14%) and regulatory technology (regtech) (10%), with added product focuses on robo-advisory (14%), and trading and fund management (12%).
• Each fintech startup typically offered more than one solution or product focus, with the majority of them (80%) requiring funding of less than US$5 million (RM20.77 million).