Experian Leads $20M Funding Round For CompareAsiaGroup 

Asian FinTech firm CompareAsiaGroup has raised $20 million in a B1 funding round, it was reported on Tuesday (Aug. 6).

The funding, which was led by credit reporting giant Experian, gives the Hong Kong-based CompareAsiaGroup access to its cloud-based credit scoring and risk assessment platform.

CompareAsiaGroup’s new research and development center in Singapore is looking to advance additional tech tools as well as introduce open banking services in Hong Kong. The platform’s 60 million users in Asia use the financial services marketplace to shop for banks, insurance and other financial products.

“… I think this really shows our commitment to Southeast Asia in particular, and also in this case Hong Kong and Taiwan,” Ben Elliott, the CEO of Experian in Asia Pacific, told the news outlet. “My view is that over time, we’ll see our capabilities and CompareAsiaGroup really improving the experience of customers while they are borrowing.”

Since CompareAsiaGroup was founded in 2014, it has raised in excess of $90 million to date. Other investors include World Bank Group member IFC, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, ACE and Company, Jardines, Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, SBI Group and H&Q Utrust.

Experian has been investing in Asian FinTech startups, including $28 million in a Series C investment to Lender C88, which operates Indonesia’s CekAja.com and Philippines’s eCompareMo.com. C88 has also opened a third marketplace in Thailand. As part of the investment, Experian software and decisioning solutions were embedded into the CekAja.com and eCompareMo.com financial marketplaces, and within its large partner distribution network.

Singapore-headquartered C88 is one of Southeast Asia’s largest and fastest-growing FinTech companies. As licensed financial marketplaces for consumers and small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), CekAja.com and eCompareMo.com have served over 50 million consumers since 2013.

The FinTech scene in Singapore has been booming: In 2017, funding for the burgeoning sector in the country reached $983.6 million that year.