About a year ago, GoBear collected a $80m in an investment round. Now it’s back with a new round of capital, although at a more modest amount.
The Singapore-based FinTech startup has filled its coffers with $17m this time, again thanks to its old backers Walvis Participaties, a Dutch venture capital firm, and Aegon N.V., a life insurance and asset management provider. The new round brings the grand total injected into the startup to $97m.
The company will use the money to grow its platform and to grow into new Asian markets. GoBear is looking to expand to Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
“To truly improve financial health in Asia we must address the approximately 300 million people in our markets that remain underserved by existing banking and insurance services,” said Adrian Chng, CEO of GoBear. “GoBear’s transformation is a response to this by tackling important local barriers to financial literacy and inclusion.”
He added, “Our latest fundraise is validation that our investors continue to see our potential for growth and that we’re on track to build a robust financial services platform that Asia really needs. Built on our strong foundation of alternative data, we can better assess and price risk, co-create better products, and ultimately improve financial inclusion.”
The news comes less than a month after the financial marketplace announced that it had acquired digital consumer lender AsiaKredit for an undisclosed sum.
Copyright © 2020 FinTech Global
