Hong Kong online banking start-up Neat raises $11m

Local investor Pacific Century Group led the round, which was also supported by MassMutual Ventures, a unit of US-based Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance that has a strong Asia presence. The company received a $5 million seed round in 2018 from Dymon Asia Ventures, Linear Venture, Portag3 Ventures, and Sagamore Investments.

Founded in 2015, Neat provides start-up founders with online banking services such as business accounts, access to prepaid credit cards, and multi-currency money transfer tools that are said to eliminate foreign exchange fees on currency conversions. The idea is that traditional banking services are insufficiently adaptive and frictionless to meet the needs of new, digital business models, which are often global from the start.

“We believe in making cross-border trade a reality for ambitious entrepreneurs around the world,” David Rosa, CEO and co-founder of Neat, said in a statement. “This capital injection is going to power our growth in enabling young businesses to operate smoothly between Europe and Asia – especially those in the export business. The success of this round has been a clear endorsement that we’re headed in the right direction.”

Neat, which recently opened an expansion office in London, hopes to solidify its European ties while also pursuing a new marketing campaign in Southeast Asia.

Additional expansion plans include developing a new line of credit cards with Visa that will be accessible to businesses of all sizes. This would augment an existing partnership with Mastercard that rolled out a line of app-operated virtual Neat Cards in February. These are designed for companies that run online businesses and whose purchases are mainly online. 

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Financials
• Support services
• Hong Kong (China)
• MassMutual Ventures
• Financial Services
• SME