Hong Kong's CompareAsiaGroup gets $20m

It is being billed as the first close for an extension of the company’s Series B round, which received $50 million in commitments led by International Finance Corporation in mid-2017.

Other previous investors include Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, SBI Group and H&Q Utrust, as well as Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, Nova Founders Capital, ACE & Company, Jardines, and Route 66 Ventures. The company has raised about $110 million to date, including a $40 million Series A in 2015 led by Goldman Sachs.

CompareAsiaGroup operates a personal finance platform for about 60 million users across Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. The service facilitates independent comparison and education for some 150 financial products, including credit cards, personal loans and insurance products, by leveraging partnerships with around 70 financial institutions across the region.

The deal gives CompareAsiaGroup access to Experian’s cloud platform as well as technologies related to digital onboarding, decision management, and eligibility scoring. This is expected to allow the two companies to jointly open a new banking service in Hong Kong, as well as continued data technology projects at CompareAsiaGroup’s recently launched R&D center in Singapore.

This is Experian’s fifth investment in the region in the past 18 months, including contributions to rounds for Singapore’s C88 Financial Technologies and ride-hailing player Grab. “We will continue to work on strengthening the financial profile of Asia Pacific consumers,” Ben Elliott, CEO for Experian Asia Pacific, said in a statement. “This is a significant undertaking that requires careful attention to consumers’ overall financial literacy and access to financial services.”

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Financials
• Technology
• Hong Kong (China)
• Financial Services
• TMT