FinTech startups in Singapore

FinTech has been a buzzword for a while now - we often hear people talking about it among the community. But exactly how big the buzz is, frankly, I'm not too sure.

That is, until we saw this report by Sofia from Lets Talk Payments. Here's the summary of the report she did:

Photo: Vulcan Post

And wow.

So Sofia divided the whole FinTech (which means Financial Technology by the way) Industry into 12 broad categories, and listed out some of the key startups in each vertical:

1. Marketplace - SmartKarma, Onelyst
2. Investments / Funds Management - Dragon Wealth, Fundwave, Mesitis
3. Education - Playmoolah, TradeHero, Innervative
4. Blockchain - CoinPip, Otonomos
5. Data / Research / Analytics - Moneythor, WeInvest, Infotrie, TrakInvest, TraderWave
6. Security / Compliance - Jewel Paymentech, Open Trade Docs
7. PFM - HomePay, Tapidata, Cardable
8. Trading - Mobile Social Trading, Call Levels, SGRECX, FlagForex, SnapInnovations
9. Cryptocurrency - bitx, coinhako
10. Lending - CapitalMatch, KyePot, ApexPeak, MoolahSense
11. Payments - Kashmi, Toast, Mezzofy, OnlinePay, SmoovPay, Xfers, SmartPesa, CodaPay, MatchMove, BillPay, GoSwiff, Glo, FastaCash, CherryCredits
12. Crowdfunding - CoAssets

From the list of FinTech startups here, it seems like the payment vertical is the most crowded one, with more than 10 startups currently trying to disrupt how payments are being done in Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Crowdfunding, on the other hand, has only one startup listed - which is CoAssets, a business network for property investment and equity crowdfunding enthusiasts.

While we did not have the time to look through all the FinTech startups, a few caught our eyes, mostly because we had heard of them somewhere from other media coverage.

Xfers, is an Internet banking payment platform which companies can use to collect payments from customers. It is a YC-backed company based in Singapore.

Capital Match, on the other hand, provides short term financing to small and medium enterprises who might need them.

Call Levels, a 500 Startups-backed company, provides real time notification alert on current market prices in forex, commodities, equities and indices.

Dragon Wealth lets wealth managers boost sales and acquire clients.

We are pretty sure that there might be other FinTech startups which might be left out of the list above (do let us know in the comments below!). Other than the boom of FinTech startups in Singapore, banks are also actively building up their individual innovation arms to ride on this FinTech wave. Some of the known ones are UBS, DBS and Citigroup.

UBS for example, set up an innovation lab earlier this year called EVOLVE - UBS Centre for Design Thinking and Innovation to focus on creating new innovative and user-centric products. DBS followed that with a recent announcement - it is investing $7.1 million in initiatives that will support the development of the startup ecosystem in Singapore over the next five years.

Citibank too launched their Citi Innovation Lab in Singapore to engage their institutional clients more innovatively and to cater to their rising digital needs.

So we are definitely seeing a full blown disruption in Singapore's FinTech industry, with probably over 100 companies trying to disrupt the various FinTech verticals.

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