Cambodia’s fintech industry is still nascent and though lacks behind its ASEAN neighbors including Singapore and Vietnam, the sector is growing steadily on the back of rapid adoption of digital payments and a large population of unbanked.
As of early 2019, fintech was the largest tech category in Cambodia, with some 50 companies, according to a report by Mekong Strategic Partners and Raintree Development. The most represented subsegment was digital payments.
To better understand Cambodia’s emerging fintech landscape, we look today at five fintech startups from the country to watch in 2020.
For this list, we focus on homegrown fintech startups and exclude companies from other countries but with local operations in Cambodia like Milvik, an insurtech company from Ghana that operates under the Bima brand, and TrueMoney, a digital payment services provider from Thailand.
These 5 fintechs have made notable strides over the past year and promise further developments this year.
Spean Luy
Founded in 2016, Spean Luy is the developer and operator of Spean Loan, a microloans mobile app.
Spean Loan allows borrowers to apply for a small loan – from US$50 to US$1,000 – in 10 minutes without paperwork and without the need to visit a physical branch. Its credit scoring system leverages machine learning to efficiently and accurately evaluate a customer’ ability to repay.
Spean Luy raised US$300,000 in a funding round led by Tokyo-headquartered Showcase Capital in February 2019. The company has plans to expand across Asia.
Clik Payment
Founded in 2016, Clik Payment is developing a payment processing application designed to address Cambodia’s fragmented payment industry.
The company’s platform will aggregate all payment methods and networks under its platform, as well as collecting transaction data, providing valuable insight on consumers to the merchants. It will also come with loyalty plans and marketing tools for merchants.
Clik is still awaiting regulatory approval from the National Bank of Cambodia, and plans to launch by mid-2020. Last year, the startup was featured amongst HPMG and H2 Ventures’ Emerging 50 fintech startups.
Wing
Wing is a leading fintech from Cambodia that specializes in mobile banking services.
The company provides an array of services ranging from local and international money transfers, bill payments, phone top-ups and online shopping, to QR code payments, and payroll and disbursement services to merchants.
Wing has a nationwide network of over 7,500 Wing Cash Xpress outlets and has inked partnerships with more than 40,000 merchants and global industry leaders including Mastercard, Visa, Western Union, MoneyGram, Alipay and WeChat Pay.
Pi Pay
Launched in 2016, Pi Pay is a leading cashless payments provider in Cambodia focusing on alternative payments.
The Pi Pay payment platform is built around a consumer-facing app that incorporates merchant payment services with a range of social and lifestyle features including Chat, Maps and Friend Finder, and a growing network of retail partners in Cambodia.
This year, Pi Pay will be merging with SmartLuy, a mobile wallet platform operated by Cambodia’s telecommunications service provider Smart Axiata. The merger aims to create the country’s biggest payment platform.
As of January 2020, Pi Pay had close to 300,000 users, and over US$350 million in transaction value. Smart Axiata serves some 8 million subscribers.
BanhJi
Founded in 2016, BanhJi is an award-winning fintech startup providing accounting solutions tailored to Cambodian micro and small businesses.
The company’s financial platform and applications integrate an payment and financing ecosystem to enable smart decisions, and access to financial services and working capital financing.
Last year, BanhJi partnered with Wing to give the fintech’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers free access to its accounting platform. As of June 2019, about 5,000 SMEs in Cambodia used Wing, while BanhJi recorded about 3,000 SME customers.
