Aspire, a Singapore-based neobank for SMEs and CE Innovation Capital’s portfolio company recently raised $100 million in an oversubscribed Series C round led by Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital SEA. Also participating this round were PayPal, Tencent, LGT Capital Partners, Picus Capital, Mass Mutual Ventures.
Aspire is one of CEiC's key investments in the B2B fintech area in Southeast Asia. Founded in 2018, the company provide small and medium-sized businesses with a unified suite of financial services, including credit-tech services, international payments, corporate cards, and payable and receivable management and automated invoice processing services. Headquartered in Singapore, Aspire has served over 15,000 businesses in Southeast Asia, covering a wide range of sectors. The company plans to use the funding to further enhance its product offering and expand its regional presence while expanding its team to continue to innovate in the space.
Gu Bingze, Partner of CEiC, commented, "SMEs are an essential growth driver of Southeast Asia’s robust economies and approximately 70 million SMEs have contributed 35% of the region's GDP. We have seen an increasing number of SMEs taking up digital tools to manage their operations, which opens up huge market potentials for Aspire. With their strong business acumen and technological capabilities, Aspire’s team have precisely targeted SMEs’ pain points in daily operation with a suite of ‘all-in-one’ digital management solutions that integrate different platforms and terminals, greatly enhancing enterprises’ operational efficiencies and customer loyalty. "
"From delivering real-time financial data to
fast and transparent cross-border payments, to empowering business teams with
world-class spend management capabilities to move fast and move right, we look
forward to empowering every modern business, big or small, with the right
financial tools to realise their full potential, " said Andrea
Baronchelli, Aspire co-founder and CEO. The company claims to have tripled its
annualised total payment volumes recently to $12 billion. Currently, Aspire has
integrated with a string of major accounting softwares, including Xero、Quickbook、Netsuite、Accurate、Jurnal.
About CE Innovation Capital
Founded in 2016, CE Innovation Capital
("CEiC") is a $1 billion venture fund investing globally in fintech,
enterprise solutions, Web3.0, blockchain, and digital-tech driven companies.
CEiC was ranked among CBInsights’ "Top10 Global Fintech CVC " by
median Mosaic score in 2021 and among the "Top9 Fintech Unicorn Investors "globally
in 2019. The fund was named "Fintech Investor of the Year " by The
Asset in 2021 and was also listed on the "Most Active Fintech Investors
2019" by Financial Technology Partners. In early 2023, CEiC
was recognized as one of "2022 China’s Top
30 Growth Capital by CVCRI" as well as "Top 50 Most Active Venture Capital Firms", "Top 20 Best Metaverse
Venture Capital Firms in China"by Qimingpian, and "Top 50 Most
Promising Funds in the world" by the Global FOF
Association.
