Singapore Business Review
In an era where mobile phones have replaced wallets, where online commerce has slowly taken over physical retail, and where transactions have become borderless, it is no surprise that fintech startups dominated the eleventh edition of Singapore Business Review’s 20 Hottest Startups, taking over eight of the 20 spots in the list.
Leading the pack in terms of latest funding is Spenmo which has already raised $45.70m, followed by Syfe ($40.33m), Volopay ($39.59m), Endowus ($35m), CyberHash ($26.96m), Xen Capital ($10.08m), Jenfi ($6.3m), and STACS ($4.85m).
What makes these startups—and fintech, in general—attractive to investors is that they are pandemic resilient, and they are taking part in the strengthening of the digital commerce ecosystem, according to Quest Ventures’ head of Environmental, Social & Governance and director of Sustainable Impact Accelerator, Michelle Ng.
Quest Ventures’ Ng urged founders who are just starting to raise funds for their startup to “focus on solving real-world problems and value creation for your users and stakeholders.”
Ng, for her part, said Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) must be on top of startups’ strategy and operations, as VCs also look into this aspect.
