news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Author: Zhang Ziyi

Editor: Yuan Silai

36Kr learned that Southeast Asian digital bank YUP recently completed a round B financing of more than 200 million yuan (30 million+ USD), led by Hong Kong venture capital firm MindWorks Capital, with co-investors including XVC, SWC Global, Richen Pioneer and Antao Capital. The funds from this round of financing will be used to further expand the user base, expand the market, and participate in local banking licenses. Since its establishment, YUP has raised nearly 700 million yuan (100 million USD) in total, served more than one million users, and accumulated more than 10 million transactions. It is expected to achieve a transaction volume of more than 1 billion USD in 24 years.

YUP was founded in 2021, with its headquarters in Singapore and branches in Jakarta and Shanghai. According to the company, YUP is currently the largest digital bank in the Indonesian market with credit cards and credit payments as its main business, serving more than one million customers and covering more than 40 million local merchants in Indonesia, with the largest offline/online merchant network coverage in Indonesia. YUP has also become the only technology company directly cooperating with VISA in Indonesia.

36Kr learned that Indonesia's financial services market is polarized. Local financial institutions tend to provide personal credit and credit card services only to high-net-worth individuals, resulting in only about 7 million people holding credit cards in the country. At the same time, many microfinance companies are active in the market, providing high-interest cash loans and payday loan products to low-income groups.

In addition, although more than 80 million Indonesian salaried workers have a stable record of social security payment, they are often excluded from traditional bank credit card services. On the other hand, many usury and cash loan products are not accepted by the salaried class. This phenomenon highlights the uneven coverage of financial services in Indonesia, and also gives fintech companies the opportunity to meet a huge but neglected customer demand.

YUP currently mainly provides credit cards, credit e-wallets, credit payment and other products for the working class in Southeast Asia. In terms of market expansion, the main market is currently Indonesia, and plans to expand its business to Vietnam and the Philippines in the future.

In terms of financial product operation services, YUP has built its user rights ecosystem by cooperating with globally renowned brands and leading local brands and retailers in Indonesia, allowing YUP users to enjoy exclusive credit card rights and discounts in daily transactions.

YUP said that the brands/retailers that have reached in-depth cooperation with the company include MAP Group (Indonesia's largest retail group, operating many international and local brands including Starbucks, Nike, Adidas, Zara, Sephora, Boss, CK, etc.), Visa (the world's largest credit card organization), KFC, CGV (a Korean cinema chain brand with a high coverage in Indonesia), Indonesia's two major convenience store brands (Indomart and Alfamart) and other large enterprises, covering users' daily consumption scenarios. In terms of licenses, YUP has currently obtained Indonesia's highest-level payment license (E-Money), credit license and financial technology innovation license, and has plans to invest in Indonesia's banking license in the near future.

YUP’s future goal is to serve more than 50 million credit card users in Southeast Asia within 8-10 years.

YUP founder Zhang Dong told 36Kr: "Nubank has issued a total of 30 million credit cards in Brazil, which has a population of 200 million, supporting the company's market value of 60 billion US dollars and annual revenue of billions of US dollars. The Southeast Asian market is a regional market with a population of more than 500 million and a greater gap between supply and demand."

Enterprises provide

In terms of the team, many core team members of YUP come from companies such as China Merchants Bank Credit Card, Bank of Communications Credit Card, Discovery and Ant Financial. Zhang Dong worked at the consulting firm Accenture in his early years. Later, as a venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur, he has 10 years of experience in the field of financial technology in Southeast Asia. Another co-founder, Zou Zhili, has worked at the Credit Card Center of Bank of Communications, the credit card business line of ANZ Bank in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines), served as the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) of Advance.ai, and co-founded Atome, the largest BNPL brand in Southeast Asia.

Currently, the amount of financing in Asia has dropped to the lowest level in 15 years. According to Crunchbase data, the total amount of venture capital in Asia in the past 23 years was US$78.1 billion, a significant drop from US$125.2 billion in the previous year. In the current capital market environment, it is not easy for YUP to successfully complete financing and increase its valuation.

YUP Chief Financial Officer Guo Tong believes that this is mainly due to three factors: first, a clear business development path. Companies like Nubank have been successful in the global market, enabling investors to better predict the development of YUP; second, sustained and stable business and financial data have attracted investors at home and abroad; third, the team advantage rooted in Southeast Asia. YUP is not a "Chinese company going overseas". From Day 1, it has been a pure Southeast Asian local technology company. More than 80% of the company's nearly 300 people are local teams in Southeast Asia, and the two co-founders have been stationed and living in Indonesia for a long time. In the future, the company plans to go public in the United States within 3-5 years and plans to become the largest digital banking platform in Southeast Asia.