5 Service Providers and Tools for Singapore Fintech Startups

Fintechs need fintechs.

In order to embed a tech company within high functioning infrastructure, it’s going to be dependent on some other services. This is good news because it saves time, money and can increase the efficiency of operations and management; but what are some of the useful service providers available to fintechs in Singapore?

This article will cover just a few that can be useful for almost any type of fintech startup.

Papayaglobal.com (Payroll Service)

If we look at Fintech start-ups with a global footprint it’s necessary to perform accounting and payroll tasks to stay on top of legislative compliance and financial management. Papaya Global makes this easy by providing a software solution that automates the processing of payroll across multiple jurisdictions.

The SaaS platform makes use of automation in order to help fintechs keep their employee information up-to-date and alert you when a document needs attention. Seeing as many fintechs benefit from remote workers, Papaya Global makes it easy to hire anywhere in the world. Standardisation has allowed the service to cater to the needs of each employee nationality, meaning the right template and report format is used accordingly.

By having one platform with multiple panes for each companies’ geographic projects, payroll is centralised and managed in one dashboard, making spreadsheets redundant as well as minimizing errors. The pricing structure also accommodates start-ups as you pay a subscription fee per employee, meaning it scales in accordance to the company’s growth. After all, cash flow is precious in the early stage growth stage.

Transferwise (Money Transfer)

TransferWise was one of the first alternatives to banks available in Singapore, whilst working alongside the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Transferwise is essentially a remittance company, aimed at offering a highly competitive exchange rate (that resembles the interbanking rate), a low and fixed transfer fee, all whilst having the security to that of a licensed bank (FCA regulated).

Singaporean fintechs thrive off international sales and payments. For most start-ups these small yet frequent payments accumulate into significant amounts of lost money in banking fees, currency spreads and PayPal fees. Transferwise offer an escape from these high banking fees for a very small fee. Of course, a flat fee may be preferable if the fintech grows past a certain size, but the Transferwise app is an extremely easy one to start with.

World Payments Corp (Payments)

Like any other company, facilitating customer payments is crucial to cash flow, and World Payments Corp aims to be an all-in-one solution for this. The service offers everything from online checkout payments (for customers paying online with debit cards), a custom payment page, 3D secure transactions and even a virtual terminal. A virtual terminal can be handy when you wish to facilitate remote sales over the phone or by mail, which is surprisingly commonplace still (and something that fintechs often neglect, which can only limit their type of sales).

The company has an office in Singapore, meaning they are both operating there and looking to be on-hand for Singaporean customer support. In fact, their support centre is open 24/7, which is important as payments issues need to be fixed ASAP. Physical Point Of Sales terminals are also on offer for companies that have a store too. Standard companies will likely pay 3.50% + 0.39 USD on sales, but this includes fraud protection and phone support. Protecting sensitive customer data is absolutely vital to the reputation of fintechs.

Sleek.sg (Incorporation)

If you want to register a company in Singapore hassle-free and with not a single document printed then Sleek is your place to go. Sleek helps you to open a company, to get you a company secretary and supports also in accounting (in partnership with Xero) and other services in Singapore. The prices are very fair and affordable.

Recently Sleek also expanded to Hong Kong and raised 5 million USD to accelerate its services. The founders are French and helped already more supported already more than 2000 companies.

The above company’s services are all available in Singapore, and all have something to offer for many fintechs. Fintechs are unique in that they often strive for an innovative solution to a certain problem and require focused efforts towards such a process. Additionally, they can often scale up extremely fast. It’s clear why they need to leverage each other’s services freeing up time and energy to focus on their own solutions.