The size of the Southeast Asian alternative financing market grew from US$46.65 million in 2015 to a whopping US$215.9 million the following year. That’s almost a fivefold leap in market value in just the span of a year, according to a study jointly conducted by the University of Cambridge and Monash University.
The United Nations estimates that Southeast Asians make up approximately 659 million of the world’s population at the time of writing—and among these numbers, a plethora of them come from regions that have traditionally been underbanked or underserved during the days before the word ‘fintech’ made any sense.
Without access to a bank account, and even if they do, a trackable credit record, these populations have been precluded from receiving loans from traditional financial institutions and thus, takes away a lot of opportunities for many of these populations to bring themselves to a higher economic standing.
P2P lending platforms have risen to address this specific problem, many able to offer smaller loans, and thus more lax terms. Digitisation or a good mobile layout also means that these platforms are able to penetrate more communities more quickly and with less upfront cost.
The rising stars of this industry will probably be coming from Indonesia, that has seen both massive demand, and a permissive regulator that deems P2P lending a viable strategy for helping its constituents rise out of poverty.
Click here for higher resolution
Indonesia
Akseleran
Akseleran is a P2P lending platform in Indonesia that connects small businesses with loans from investors. Akseleran claims to offer competitive and flexible interests in the agreement terms.
Aktivaku
Another Go-Jek partner, Aktivaku is a marketplace for borrowers to find lenders, where the borrowers can set assets as guarantees for every transaction to minimalise investor risk.
Amartha
Operating since 2010, Amartha’s platform focuses on investors funding rural micro-enterprises through lending, providing investors with potential returns, and social impact. Amartha mitigates default risk by joint liability group, life insurance, and credit insurance. Investors can also monitor their funding activities through Amartha’s dynamic dashboard.
Ammana
Ammana is a platform that facilitates the matching between businesses and investors via a digital platform
Artawana
Artawana is a lending and borrowing platform with collateral for everyone. Artawana was established in 2016 by a group of professionals with strong financial and technological experience in leading companies in London, Zurich and Singapore to disrupt financial inclusion with technology and enable everyone to achieve financial security.
AwanTunai
AwanTunai helps banks to prepare affordable funding for the big market in Indonesia by offering an app to help Indonesians access bank loans.
CashWagon
Cashwagon is a service provider of financial technology. They provide access to financial technology solutions in Indonesia. With a presence in several Southeast Asian countries, Cashwagon’s main focus in Indonesia is on consumer financing online, providing access to online cash loans, complicated approval procedures, or long-term lending.
Cicil
Cicil aims to answer Indonesia’s financial inclusion issue among university students. For the time being, Cicil.co will enable students to purchase products to support their study, such as computers and laptops. But in the future, the startup plans to also include tuition fee. In 2016, Cicil received seed funding from East Ventures
Crowde.co
CROWDE is a crowd-investing platform that enables farmers to raise their working capital from a crowd-investor with a profit-sharing scheme. CROWDE aims big to increase farmer’s welfare by empowering farmers to be agropreneurs, creating an efficient agriculture ecosystem, and be the trusted crowd-investment platform with the spirit of mutual cooperation.
Crowdo
Crowdo is a regional fintech company offering a full portfolio of alternative financing solutions across peer-to-business lending and securities / equity crowdfunding launched in 2013
DanaCita
Dana Cita is on a mission to democratize access to higher education in Indonesia. Through our lending platform, students pursuing Diploma, Bachelors, Masters, and non-degree short-courses can obtain affordable loans to fund their tertiary education and training. We are the first in Indonesia to offer financing for full degree programs and are backed by Y Combinator.
DanaBijak
DanaBijak is an Indonesian-based digital financial technology start-up that provides unsecured microloans to underbanked Indonesians up to US$250 and 30 days as the maximum length of a loan. The mission of the company is to provide consumer finance and give access to financial services to those who are left aside by banks while leveraging on technology and smart data.
DanaKita
DataKita offers loans between Rp5 million to Rp 10 million with installments between 6 to 18 months, with provision of photos of valid documents. They also teamed up with Asosiasi Fintech Indonesia in a collaboration to benefit Indonesians.
Dana Merdeka
Dana Merdeka investments go into funding the development and growth of SMEs in Indonesia to help them manage risks.
Danamas
Danamas is a P2P lending website that for investors, claims to allow easy liquidity even though they are not yet due. As of August 2018, they facilitated up to Rp 783,13 million in loans.
DompetKilat
Offers loans up to Rp 2.000.000, started from Rp 500.000, DompetKilat provides digital-lending consumer product using a human-less approach to serve the “inaccessible population”
Esta Kapital Fintek
Esta Corporations was established in 2011 and till now Esta continues to expand through its business in various sectors, such as property, finance, and culinary. By 2017, Esta Kapital Fintek stands as a technology finance company under the auspices of Esta Corporations with the concept of peer to peer lending.
Findaya
Findaya is a financial product of PT Mapan Global Reksa (Mapan) focused on lending for GO-JEK and GO- LIFE teams with a social mission of helping with financial inclusion and the digital economy in Indonesia.
Finmas
Finmas by PT Oriente Mas Sejahtera aims to be the leading peer-to-peer lending platform offering credit in order to provide qual access to affordable credit for everyone.
Fintegra Homido Indonesia
The platform Fintag provides a platform for funding for the businesses in Indonesia and provides investors that originate from the finance industry, lending businesses and individuals.
GoCash
GoCash is an application launched by PT Teknologi Quantum Indonesia in 2017. Only by providing ID card, you can apply for a loan of up to Rp. 1,000,000. PT Teknologi Kuantum Indonesia combines powerful risk management, machine learning, and big data mining technologies to create high-quality mobile application implementation and technology.
Gradana
Gradana offers cash advance loans of 24 to 36 months with no additional interest. The value of the advance has been agreed with the developers who become partners and informed in advance. Gradana guarantees the buyer gets the same house price according to the pricelist. Once the DP is paid off, the buyer will easily get a mortgage facility with a credit record of previous Gradana.
iGrow
iGrow is a platform that helps local farmers with land that is not yet optimal by matching them with well-known investors to create farming products that are organic.
IndoDana
IndoDana offers KTA loans via mobile phone with installments. Loans are offered up to Rp8 million and offers rewards for timely payments for borrowers.
Investree
Investree matches lenders to borrowers in a single marketplace, and designed for lenders seeking better rates of return for their funding and borrowers needing loans at competitive interest rates.
Julo
JULO is a digital lending company that is revolutionizing access to financial products for millions of new consumers in Indonesia. The Company has developed the first digital data-based credit guarantee and risk assessment platform to process consumer loan applications and determine their credit worthiness using its mobile app.
Karapoto
Karapoto is an information technology-based finance company (Fintech) that is present to reach and provide peer to peer financial services to the bottom pyramid community for the achievement of the inclusive financial program launched by the government through Bank Indonesia.
KIMO
KIMO is a technology-based company that digitizes financial inclusion by bridging capital financing from investor to beneficiary safely, easily, and quickly.
Klik ACC
KlikACC is a community based P2P lending company which enables transaction transparency for borrowers and investors, with the entire transaction with the report accessible by the user. The company also conducts periodic review of their scoring model and implements procedures in field surveys and questionnaires tested for the credit application process.
KoinWorks
KoinWorks is a matching platform that utilises machine learning to match an investor with a borrower. Lenders can invest at minimum, Rp100,000 with the ability to choose the right investment for their purposes, and borrowers get loans with what the platform describes as lower interest rates.
Kredit Cepat
Kredit Cepat is an short-term online lending company that aims to provide cash in the shortest possible time without any collateral. They disburse loan funds into your bank account within 24 hours.
Kredivo, whose parent company FinAccel is headquartered in Singapore, launched in Indonesia last year to tackle a fundamental problem ecommerce startups were facing: customers didn’t fully trust online shopping.
Mekar
Mekar allows investments into micro businesses in Indonesia, with goals to empower female micro businesses. The platform seems to promise up to 12.5% returns per year.
Modalku
Known as Funding Societies in Singapore, Modalku targets SME owners specifically for investment on their platform from both individuals and institutional lenders.
Pendanaan.com
This technology-based loan technology platform in Indonesia since December 2016, under the control of the parent company Hadoop Fintech (Hong Kong) Limited, a limited liability company incorporated in Hong Kong.
Qreditt
Qreditt is a short-term borrower through a direct auction mechanism between the borrower and lender to result in a fair borrowing agreement for the Borrower but remains favorable to the Lender.
RupiahPlus
RupiahPlus is one of the biggest lending platforms in Indonesia, and offers loans up to Rp800,000 and Rp1,500,000 without the need to provide collateral.
TangBull
PT Tangbull Tech Indonesia is a corporate legal entity that positions itself as a platform by providing services as a liaison between the parties who provide loans with lending recipients by means of funding from individuals, organizations, or legal entities to individuals (peer to peer lending).
Taralite
Taralite offers funding for businesses without the need for collaterals, coming from both individual and institutional lenders.
TokoModal
Tokomodal matches lenders and borrowers via an online system that aims to shorten the time it takes for funding processes, and supports the process to the end of its cycle for both parties.
Tunaiku
Tunaiku provides loans online without collateral. Supported with advanced technology and data analytics, Tunaiku is able to serve very quickly (24 hours) and with easy requirements. Beginning operations in 2014, Tunaiku became a non-collateral loan product owned by a multinational company called TOLARAM.
TunaiKita
TunaiKita develops and deployed a ‘lending robot’ that uses the data you provide through our mobile app on your smartphone and online accounts. Their lending robot evaluates your user profile and assigns you a credit score with which you can apply for cash loans.
Uang Teman
UangTeman offers micro loans in Indonesia for both consumer and business needs. It is currently available in Jabodetabek, Yogyakarta, Solo, Magelang, Klaten, Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang, Bali, Makassar, Palembang, Lampung, Jambi dan Balikpapan.
Vietnam
Lendbiz
Lendbiz is a Vietnamese company that offers P2P lending to SMEs, and is probably one of the first in the country to do so.
LoanVi
Loanvi is an online peer-to-peer lending platform for personal loans in Vietnam. Founded in 2015, the startup aims at bridging the gap between underbanked individuals and investors by creating an accessible channel for individuals to acquire loan financing and for investors to earn solid fixed-income returns.
Mofin
Originating from USA, Mofin made its way to Vietnam to offer P2P financing services with a mission of providing quick loans. By the end of 2017, Mofin has deployed financial advisory and connection services, providing financial support to thousands of borrowers and lenders in all provinces of Vietnam.
Tima
With initial investment capital of VND 150 billion, TIMA provides peer-to-peer (P2P) technology in Vietnam. In June 2016, TIMA started to provide financial consultancy and connection services, providing simple, fast and reliable financial advice to customers nationwide.
Trust Circle
With the power of technology to help people easily access support from friends and family, Trust Circle develops technology solutions created by the hands of programmers in order to contribute to a better life for not only the people of Vietnam but also the entire global user.
Malaysia
AlixCo
AlixCo is fully owned and managed by FundedByMe (FBMCrowdTech Sdn Bhd) FundedByMe, a Swedish-based crowdfunding platform. In Malaysia they are also approved by Securities Commission Malaysia to be a Equity Crowdfunding operator.
Finpal
B2b Finpal is a local P2P lending player, but it’s not a complete rookie to the SME space its parent company B2B Commerce (M) Sdn Bhd has been providing supply chain management software for the past 17 years to SMEs.
Funding Societies
Funding Societies is a regional P2P lending player operating in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. The company was founded by Kelvin Teo and Reynold Wijaya who were both Harvard graduates. Funding Societies operates in Indonesia under the name Modalku.
Fundaztic
Fundaztic is owned and managed by Peoplender (M) Sdn Bhd. The company’s management team consists of industry veterans and senior level ex-bankers.
Nusa Kapital
Nusa Kapital (NuKap) claims to be world’s first regulated Shariah-compliant P2P Crowdfunding Platform. NuKap is fully owned and managed by Ethis Kapital Sdn Bhd
QuicKash
QuicKash is a unit under the public company ManagePay Systems Berhad, a provider of end-to-end electronic payment (“e-Payment”) solutions. The company aims to leverage on their fintech experience from running MPAY to give them a competitive edge in P2P Lending.
Thailand
Beehive Asia
Beehive Asia is is an online P2P marketplace that connects businesses with investors who wish to support the growth of local small and medium businesses. The platform uses innovative crowdfunding technology to eliminate the cost and complexity of conventional finance. The result is a more efficient, streamlined process that provides Thai businesses faster access to lower cost short term financing.
PeerPower
PeerPower is an online marketplace lender based in Thailand, and exists so that borrowers with good credit history get better rates.
Singapore
Capital Match
Capital Match, which was established in 2014, provides business and SME loans and invoice financing facilities of S$50,000 to S$200,000. The platform had funded S$62 million in loans, as of December 2017. Capital Match has raised S$1 million in funding so far from Innosight Ventures, Crystal Horse Investments and CE-Tech Invest.
Capital Springboard
Capital Springboard is the latest venture by David Rawson-Mackenzie, who specialises in wealth and alternative financial strategies. David’s network of companies, the Centurion Group, offers a full suite of financial services for private and institutional investors. Capital Springboard is one of the the largest P2P invoice finance platforms with more than S$170 million worth of invoices transacted as of October 2017.
Crowdo
Crowdo is a regional fintech company offering a full portfolio of alternative financing solutions across peer-to-business lending and securities / equity crowdfunding launched in 2013
Crowd Genie
Crowd Genie is a platform where we match Small and Medium size companies who are looking to borrow funds with investors who are looking for better returns than what they get from the banks. Crowd Genie also launched their own token, CGCOIN.
FundedHere
FundedHere is the first registered equity and lending-based crowdfunding platform for promising businesses in Asia, issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). FundedHere has built an ecosystem for both investors and businesses, leveraging on Singapore as a springboard for the rest of Asia. The platform connects promising tech startups in Southeast Asia and Greater China with professional and accredited investors. Launched in March 2015, FundedHere obtained its CMS license from MAS in 2016.
Funding Societies
Funding Societies is a regional P2P lending player operating in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. The company was founded by Kelvin Teo and Reynold Wijaya who were both Harvard graduates. Funding Societies operates in Indonesia under the name Modalku.
Minterest
Recognised as Asia’s Top 25 Fintech Company by APAC CIO Outlook, Minterest intends to use a broad spectrum of innovative technologies and our team’s financial expertise to overcome existing real world financial shortcomings.
MoolahSense
Founded in 2013, MoolahSense is a Singaporean P2P lending platform connecting local SMEs with investors. MoolahSense is backed by East Ventures and Pix Vine Capital and signed a partnership with DBS Bank to refer successful borrowers to the bank for larger loans and other traditional banking services. Funding Societies is the first Singaporean peer-to-peer lending company to incorporate a trustee registered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Validus
Backed by Temasek Holdings’ Vertex Ventures, Validus is a P2P online financing marketplace designed to help bridge the cash flow gap small and medium businesses face. The platform allows Validus to provide better financing solutions to the underserved SMEs in Singapore.
Phillippines
Acudeen
Acudeen’s digital financing strategy is to finance the receivables of MSMEs ahead of time. It is an online platform for receivables discounting, allowing for fast transaction, from receivable uploaded to cash within five to seven days, giving MSMEs better control of their cashflow.
AsiaKredit
AsiaKredit is a Singapore-based digital consumer lender that provides unsecured small-ticket short-term consumer loans via mobile app. AsiaKredit was seeded and developed by FORUM and Fintonia Group, and now with operations in the Philippines, aims to reach Southeast Asia’s unbanked in the near future. Products under it include pera247 , a short-term digital lender based in the Philippines
Banko
Banko is a mobile-based, microfinance-focused savings bank which aims to provide the low-income segment with secure and convenient access to affordable financial services. It does this by leveraging on its assets & infrastructure in the banking & telecommunications industries.
Balik Bayad
Balik Bayad is a loan provider catering to the specific financing needs of OFW and seamen. For OFWs, its loan facilities are meant to bridge the time it takes to secure a job overseas while still needing housing and supplies. It also has a blog which serves as a guide on working conditions in different countries.
Cashalo
Cashalo is a smartphone app that aims to deliver quick, and secure access to funds at affordable rates in an accessible way. Alternative data points are used to develop a credit score profile from which loan applications will then be approved and disbursed.
CashWagon
Singapore-headquartered Cashwagon aims to foster financial inclusion by offering online cash loans without any collateral requirements, complex approval procedures or prolonged application waiting times. The company is currently active in 5 markets: Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia.
Cropital
Cropital is a social enterprise-based crowdfunding platform connecting investors to farmers’ produce, according to different crops’ harvest cycles. It is supported by Forbes 30 under 30, the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Center (MaGIC), the Young Entrepreneurs Society of the Philippines (YES) and Internet.org.
Farm On
Farm On, similar to Cropital, is a crowdfunding platform where investors can provide sustainable financing to farmers. Farm On is backed by algriculturists from the Department of agriculture, and currently owns 96 hectares of the land being farmed on. This land is being managed by partners in the Isabela and Quirino provinces.
Fintq
Fintq is the financial technology arm of PLDT and Smart’s Voyager Innovations. It is the developer of a wide range of financial services, including digital lending, digital insurance, digital banking security and alternative credit scoring facilities. It was most recently reported to be launching a digital credit scoring system
First Circle
First Circle is a provider of short term financing to small and medium enterprises to help improve their cashflow and buy inventory. It is also the official finance partner of the Philippines’ Department of Trade & Industry (DTI).
Fund.ko
Fund.ko is a P2P lending platform that matches investors and lenders according to their financing needs and corresponding resources. It is a subsidiary of Guevent Investments Development Corporation (GIDC), which has over 50 years’ experience in business operations in the Philippines.
Fuse Lending
Fuse Lending, a Mynt product, aims to create and sustain opportunities for growth and stability for individuals and small businesses through responsible and fintech-enabled lending.
Global Credit Pros
Global Credit Pros is an online lender which offers quick personal and salary loans of between 10,000 pesos to 30,000 pesos for up to 3 months. Applicants can request for a loan online, which GCP will then process using its proprietary software. Approved loans are disbursed at an interest fee rate of 10% per month.
Good Kredit
Good Kredit (GK) is an electronic Gift Certificate and electronic Gift Voucher program based on multiple repayment model. It refers to itself as “a mobile first execution”, meaning, the core of its transactions are centered on the mobile. GoodKredit began in 2016 but as a borderless voucher based on P2P lending and a payment platform. It offers various financial services revolving around P2P engagement to B2B and B2C scenarios.
InvestED
InvestEd is a student loan program which makes it easier for students, who cannot afford high-interest rates from microfinance lenders and are shut out from the financial system to get education funds.
Lendr
Lendr is an end-to-end loans origination and loans management platform aimed at financial institutions and credit providers. Its offerings include loans for medicine, truck & equipment, mobile crop, OFWs as well as personal, salary and home loans in partnership with financial institutions and other fintech business models. Lendr comes under FINTQ, the financial technology arm of Voyager Innovations.
Lend.me
LendMe.ph partners with a number of financial lending institutions to provide options for personal, home, vehicle and business loans. It analyses users’ needs to determine the most suitable product, and provides value-add services like real estate appraisals, property title transfers, secondhand car listings and rent, sale or mortgage assistance on owned properties.
Leverage
Leverage.ph is an operating subsidiary of MicroGroup Lending Corporation providing online loan access to SMEs. Customers can submit their loan applications online, after which they will need to upload a list of documents and attend a scheduled interview at the office. Loans are offered for up to 12 months at a 3.5% monthly interest rate.
LoanChamp
LoanChamp is the loan arm of Yfinance Inc offering payday loans and lead sourcing services. Applications for payday loans can be made via mobile, and loans of up to 20,000 pesos borrowed for periods of between 5-30 days.
LoanSolutions
Loan Solutions connects borrowers with a network of lending partners in the Philippines. Its platform facilitates access to credit for various financial needs that include personal loans for employees, OFWs, seamen, freelancers; home loans, cash loans and business loans for a variety of purposes.
LoanRanger
Loanranger.ph is a product of the First Digital Finance Corporation. It provides short-term instant or near-instant credit to consumers, as well as a convenient and safe alternative to unregulated lenders. Instead using a credit history, it arrives at loan application decision using big data analytics.
MoneyMatch
MoneyMatch serves as the P2P lending arm of fintech Global Resources Inc in the Philippines. Launched last July 2017, the platform allows a minimum amount of P5,000 as investment. MoneyMatch promises average return of 24 per cent interest rate, ranging from 12 per cent up to 36 per cent.
MoolaLending
Moola Lending Corporation is a Philippine-based financial technology company powered by the Online Loans Pilipinas international line of fintech companies and focused in online micro- and consumer financing, one of the first to offer online loans in the Philippines.
PawnHero
PawnHero is Southeast Asia’s first online pawnshop and aims to provide affordable personal loans from a wide range of items, including jewellery, precious metals, loose stones, musical instruments, designer bags, electronic gadgets and other equipment. It improves on conventional pawn shops by offering standardised interest rates and faster transactions while cutting out hidden costs like insurance and delivery fees.
Pera Agad
A product of Cash Credit, Pera Agad is a global financial services firm that has partnered with SMART to bring a fast unsecured credit of up to 10,000 pesos to SMART Prepaid and TnT subscribers.
PeraJet
PeraJet is a digital lender which aims to provide quick short-term loans to individuals. Loans of up to 35,000 pesos can be borrowed for periods of up to 12 months. PeraJet is supervised by the Philippine Securities & Exchange Commission and backed by WJA Investments.
QuickPera
QuickPera is a lender of two types of loans: short-term payday loans or longer-term loans spanning a few months. Borrowers have to upload a set of documents including payslips, bank statements and references to be eligible. They can then repay their loans over the counter at any of QuickPera’s partner retail outlets.
RoboCash
Russia-based Robocash offers payday loans, secured loans, installment loans and microloans and charges a fixed daily rate of 2.5% for amounts of between 1,000-25,000 pesos.
Uploan
Launched in 2017, Uploan’s business model targets the salary deducted lending market, offering institutional and retail investors an alternative way of investing. Pension funds, trusts, non-profit and for-profit corporations, and hedge funds — can participate on its platform, including individual investors.
Vidalia Lending Corp
Vidalia Lending Corp is a P2P crowdfunding platform. For borrowers, it offers a range of different loans: including lite, personal and salary loans for individuals, as well as business and small business loans for enterprises. The company also typically combines investor funds with its own capital in loans disbursement.
Myanmar
Kiva
Kiva is an international nonprofit, founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. We celebrate and support people looking to create a better future for themselves, their families and their communities.
Zomia
Zomia SPC is a social purpose corporation launched in 2014 to increase access to higher education among students from marginalized communities. We do so by providing students from marginalized communities affordable education loans that are funded by philanthropic individuals and institutions from around the world.
Cambodia
Karprak
Karprak.com is Cambodia’s first online P2P lending platform, designed to facilitate low cost loans for borrowers while increasing the return and managing risk for the lenders. Karprak.com combines traditional lending practices with social networking to create the platform where borrowers and lenders transact.
Komchey
Chansamrach Lem began developing Cambodia’s peer-to-peer (P2P) online lending platform, Komchey. While other P2P lending platforms are already in use in Cambodia, Komchey is the first such software to be designed and owned by a Cambodian company.
Featured image via Steven Millstein on flickr
