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Tag: GoBear

  • Fintech Finder to Pursue Regional Growth Opportunities

    Fintech Finder to Pursue Regional Growth Opportunities

    The company, which purchased Singapore-based financial comparison platform GoBear earlier this year, has appointed a chief growth officer, who will play a critical role in its global expansion.

    Australia-headquartered Finder has appointed strategic business executive Jinnee Lim to the role of chief growth officer – Southeast Asia, effective immediately, the fintech announced on Tuesday.

    Lim brings over 15 years of experience in corporate strategy, business development, and strategic transformation. She was previously chief strategy officer at GoBear, and was involved in the sale of its marketplace assets to Finder. She has also held several regional positions at UBS, most recently as Asia Pacific head of client programs and segments, and at Boston Consulting Group.

    In her new role, Lim will work closely with Finder’s global executive team to identify and pursue new growth opportunities in the region. Her immediate focus will be ramping up Finder’s key capabilities in content creation, marketing, and partnerships, the announcement said.

    Finder finalized its purchase of the GoBear brand across seven markets: Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, in April this year. The deal comprised trademark and digital assets including domains, website content, and social channels but did not include operations and staff.

    Finder currently has offices in Australia, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Poland, and the Philippines, and plans to open an office in Singapore in the near future.

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  • Finder Acquires Financial Comparison Platform GoBear

    Finder Acquires Financial Comparison Platform GoBear

    Finder, a global comparison platform founded in 2006 in Sydney, Australia, has acquired the GoBear brand as it accelerates its global expansion.

    Finder aims to grow its presence as a key financial comparison platform in Southeast Asia with the acquisition of the GoBear brand, it said in an announcement on Thursday.

    Singapore-based GoBear, which was founded in 2015, operated a platform for insurance, banking, and lending products in seven markets in Southeast Asia, but shut down at the start of 2021, citing a challenging operating environment and its inability to raise new funds from existing or new investors.

    We felt there was a great alignment between the two brands and, after three years with a light presence in the region, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to step in and purchase the like-minded brand, the announcement said.

    Finder noted the region’s large unbanked market, which includes some 438 million consumers, and said there is a significant opportunity for growth, as digital financial services are set to grow to a $60 billion business by 2025.

    As part of the deal, GoBear’s website content will be integrated into local Finder sites across the seven markets: Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The GoBear brand will continue to operate via social media and email channels

  • Financial Platform GoBear Shuts Down

    Financial Platform GoBear Shuts Down

    The startup said the global pandemic has created a challenging operating environment, and it is unable to raise additional funds from existing or new investors.

    Singapore-based financial comparison and data platform GoBear has announced that it will begin a formal process to shut down operations, after a prolonged period of weakened demand for some financial products and services, in particular travel insurance, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    GoBear has made the difficult decision to close the business. Our purpose was to improve the financial health of people across Asia and I’m proud and grateful for the contributions that all our employees and partners have made towards that mission, Adrian Chng, CEO of GoBear, said in a statement on Tuesday.

    The company said its financial resources is likely to be sufficient to fulfill its existing commitments to customers, employees, suppliers and partners, and that it will work with the relevant authorities to ensure adherence to local laws and regulations.

    GoBear, which was founded in 2015, operates a platform for insurance, banking and lending products in seven markets in Southeast Asia. The startup’s founders, chief technology officer Ivonne Bojoh and chief commercial officer Marnix Zwart, departed in November 2019.

    In September 2020, GoBear announced that it would cut 22 staff across its operations, product, and technology teams – 11 percent of its global workforce of 200.

    The platform raised a total of $97 million in funding, including $17 million from long-term investors, Dutch venture capital firm Walvis Participaties and life insurance, pensions and asset management firm Aegon as recently as May 2020. The same month, it acquired Singapore-based digital lending platform AsiaKredit.

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  • Gobear Taps Cloud Banking Platform

    Gobear Taps Cloud Banking Platform

    The financial services start-up with big regional ambitions is collaborating with both Mambu as it accelerates its lending business across Asia.

    Cloud banking service provider Mambu’s lending architecture will form the core system of Gobear as it expands to the Philippines in 2020, with additional markets to follow, it announced in a statement on Monday.

    Mambu’s partnership with Gobear was established after a recommendation from long-term Mambu partner CredoLab, which provides Gobear with alternative credit scores based on smartphone metadata, the announcement said.

    Having access to responsible credit should be a financial right for all. Tapping into fintech solutions like Mambu’s and CredoLab’s brings us one step closer to making this a reality for the region’s 296 million unbanked or underbanked, Mike Singh, GoBear’s chief lending officer, said.

    Founded in 2015, Gobear operates a platform for insurance, banking and lending products. It operates in seven markets in Southeast Asia and has registered more than 55 million site visitors.

    In May, Gobear acquired Singapore-based AsiaKredit, which provides financial products to the underserved in the Philippines with a mobile app that boasts over 1 million loan applications

    Earlier this month, Gobear added $17 million from long-term investors Walvis Participaties and Aegon, bringing its total funding to $97 million.

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  • Fintech Startup GoBear Adds Digital Lending via Acquisition

    Fintech Startup GoBear Adds Digital Lending via Acquisition

    Financial product comparison platform GoBear acquired AsiaKredit in a bid cover Asia’s alluring unbanked segment.

    Singapore-based AsiaKredit was acquired at an undisclosed amount following an announcement by GoBear in May last year that it raised around $80 million to date from two Dutch companies – asset manager Aegon and VC firm Wallis Participaties.

    AsiaKredit provides financial products to the underserved in the Philippines with a mobile app – pera247 – that boasts over 1 million loan applications. GoBear will look to leverage AsiaKredit’s risk management and automation capabilities in data-driven underwriting and collections to establish «end-to-end lending».

    Credit access to consumers is due for increased importance in 2020 developing countries faced significant growth slowdowns, the firm said.

    The fintech promise for the unbanked is to provide and manage sound lending to those that aren’t linked to the formal banking system – a market Bain & Company estimates has 296 million people in Southeast Asia alone. The region is home to most of GoBear’s businesses which have operations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

    Through its latest acquisition, GoBear will look to provide connect consumers to its over 100-strong banking network which includes the likes of HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citi.

    The establishment of industry-leading lending business is a critical component of GoBear’s strategy to support our banking partners in providing loans to the many underserved consumers in Asia,» reiterated GoBear CEO Adrian Chng.

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