Aspire Raises $100M to Grow Finance Platform in Southeast Asia

Aspire has raised $100 million in a Series C round to grow its all-in-one finance operating system for businesses.

The Singapore-based firm said in a Tuesday (Feb. 14) press release that it will use the new capital to increase its team, enhance its product offering and expand its presence in Southeast Asia.

Its Series C funding round included investments from Lightspeed, Sequoia Capital SEA, PayPal Ventures, LGT Capital Partners and existing backers Picus Capital and MassMutual Ventures, according to the release.

“Aspire has emerged as a leader in the B2B FinTech space in Southeast Asia, with a complete end-to-end product for managing business finance, a strong track record of growth and solid fundamentals,” Lightspeed Partner Bejul Somaia said in the release.

PYMNTS research has found that nearly one-third of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) would be interested in using an all-in-one payment platform to receive payments.

Such platforms can address many of SMBs’ accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) headaches — including inefficiencies and pain points when making and receiving B2B payments — according to “The AP/AR Quick-Start Guide: Reducing B2B Payments Friction for SMBs,” a PYMNTS and Plastiq collaboration.

Aspire’s unified suite of financial services for businesses includes international payments, corporate cards, and AP and AR management, according to the release.

The firm serves 15,000 startups and SMBs in Southeast Asia and currently handles annualized total payment volumes of $12 billion, the release said.

“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 realize their full potential,” Aspire Co-founder and CEO Andrea Baronchelli said in the release.

Aspire’s funding round comes about a year after Indonesian banking and digital finance platform Akulaku got a $100 million investment to help it continue its expansion across Southeast Asia.

Akulaku said at the time that it already had a presence in Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia and was founded to give underserved customers in emerging markets access to digital banking, digital financing, digital investment and insurance brokerage services.

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