Southeast Asia sees the number of Fintechs rise by 3588% since 2000; Revealing RoboCash Group

by James · February 10, 2023

In Southeast Asia, the number of fintech companies in payments, alternative lending, e-wallets and digital banking has grown 3,588 percent since 2000; found Robocash Group.

Robocash Groups’State of SEA Fintech 2022 Reportreveals that between 2000 and 2022, the total number of fintechs in Southeast Asia increased from 34 to 1,254. The largest increase occurred between 2015 and 2020. During this period, around 62 percent of all existing companies from the four sectors under consideration were launched.

The Robocash Group study aimed to understand how fintech has developed in emerging countries in Southeast Asia. The focus was namely: India, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Of these countries, the largest number of companies operate in India, the report shows. A total of 541 fintechs are based in India, accounting for 43.1 percent of all fintechs found.

After India, Indonesia hosted the second largest number of fintech companies at 165 (13.2 percent); followed by:

Singapore – 162 (12.9 percent)
Philippines – 125 (10 percent)
Malaysia – 84 (6.7 percent)
Vietnam – 78 (6.2 percent)
Pakistan – 51 (4.1 percent)
Sri Lanka – 27 (2.2 percent)
Bangladesh – 21 (1.7 percent)

Growth varies depending on the sector

The highest concentration of fintech is in alternative lending (544, 43.4 per cent). This is closely followed by payments and transfers (496, 39.6 per cent). E-wallets (118, 9.4 percent) and digital banking (96, 7.7 percent) were the least populated sectors.

Robocash analysts commented on the findings for the four focus sectors:

“The results show that the Philippines puts the most emphasis on these four fintech areas, which account for 54.3 percent of all fintechs in this country.

“The rest of the distribution goes as follows: Sri Lanka – 41.5 percent (65), Vietnam – 37.7 percent (207), Pakistan 24.2 percent (211), Indonesia 19.4 percent (850), Malaysia 18, 3 percent. per cent (458), Bangladesh 15 per cent (140), India 10.5 per cent (5176).

“The lower the share, the higher the diversification by types of fintech companies in the country and the competition between them.”

Funding also varies depending on location

Between 2000 and 2022, fintechs in the four focus sectors raised a total of $53.3 billion in funding and earned $17.8 billion.

Robocash found that fintechs across Southeast Asia had an average return of 33.4 percent. Essentially, for every dollar of funding received, fintechs earned an average of just over 33 cents.

The majority of funding for the entire region ended up in India – with $25.6 billion (48 percent). Singapore received $14.7 billion (27.6 percent), while Indonesia received $7.5 billion (14.1 percent). In comparison, the remaining countries raised lower amounts: