Aspire is a Singapore-based B2B fintech firm. According to filings with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), Aspire secured a $79.15-million investment. The funding was provided by its US holding company, per the filings. The article does not disclose the instrument type, valuation, use of proceeds, or operating metrics. No additional product details or future plans were reported in the article. Aspire, founded in 2018, provides a finance operating stack for SMEs including working capital loans, bank accounts for cross-border businesses, corporate cards, payables and receivables management, and automated invoice processing. The platform integrates with accounting software such as Xero, QuickBook, NetSuite, Accurate and Jurnal. Co-founder and CEO Andrea Baronchelli says Aspire focuses on new-age businesses across sectors from single-director firms to companies with 500+ employees. Over the past 12 months Aspire tripled its annualized total payment volumes to $12 billion and now serves over 15,000 businesses in Southeast Asia. Most customers use Aspire for payment accounts, multi-currency management, and payables/receivables workflows. The company plans to use its latest funding on product development, regional expansion, and growing its team. Aspire, founded in 2018, offers a multiproduct financial stack for SMEs that includes bank accounts, corporate cards, automated invoice processing and connected financial management software, plus an incorporation service called Aspire Kickstart. It began by providing working capital loans and still offers credit lines and cards typically starting around $50,000 and up to $300,000, scalable as customers grow. More than 10,000 business accounts have been opened on Aspire, and those accounts transact roughly $2 billion annually, a volume that doubled in five months from May. Aspire is building out payroll functionality for multi-country employees and adding invoice-reconciliation features to deepen its product suite. The company aims to replace the typical seven providers SMEs use for banking, FX, invoicing, payroll and accounting by becoming a one-stop financial operating system. Aspire operates a neo-banking-like platform centered on AspireAccount, which provides merchants and startups instant credit limits for daily business expenses (up to about $70,000), B2B acceptance and cash-flow management tools. Applications are submitted via a mobile app and reviewed by a proprietary risk-assessment engine before final human approval. The company opens about 1,000 business accounts each month, has seen 30% month-over-month growth since its January 2018 founding, and expects to exceed 100,000 business accounts by next year. Aspire currently operates in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam and will use new capital to scale across those markets. It is building a marketplace banking infrastructure to integrate third-party financial services and is developing a business credit card linked to each business account, planned for release as early as this year. Co-founder and CEO Andrea Baronchelli, formerly CMO at Lazada, says the product targets SMEs underserved by traditional banks. Aspire is a Southeast Asia-focused online lending platform headquartered in Singapore. The company operates an online lending service across the region. Aspire raised a $9 million seed round, according to the article. Singapore-based Insignia Ventures Partners participated in the round. Insignia was founded by ex-Sequoia Asia partner Yinglan Tan. The article does not disclose other investors, the use of proceeds, operating metrics, or future plans.

Total raised

$379M

Funding rounds

6

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Jan 2024