MoneySmart.sg raises S$2.8m in Series A funding

Singapore

MONEYSMART.SG, a homegrown personal finance portal, has raised S$2.8 million in a Series A round led by SPH Media Fund, and joined by Indonesia's Convergence Ventures, Singapore's OPT SEA and Golden Gate Ventures, as well as notable corporate chiefs and entrepreneurs such as Zopim's Royston Tay and Kwok Yang Bin; SingCapital's Alfred Chia; Propnex's Mohamed Ismail Gafoor and Alan Lim; and Homeaway's Dan Lynn.

Founder and chief executive officer Vinod Nair told a media briefing on Tuesday: "MoneySmart.sg's immediate plans are to grow our team of developers and content writers, and to amplify our brand and expand into one new market in Asia. We're thinking the Philippines, Thailand or Hong Kong, by mid 2016."

MoneySmart.sg - which has a presence in Indonesia by way of an acquisition of Indonesian counterpart DuitPintar.com in November 2014 - provides comparisons for 16 types of personal finance products from credit cards and life insurance policies to home loans and bank accounts.

Founded in October 2009, the startup achieved break-even and profitability at the end of 2014, BT has learnt. Up to 80 per cent of its revenue comes from cost per acquisition (commission earned from successful product sign-ups directed to partner sites through its platform) and the other 20 per cent from selling advertisements on its website.

Asked if advertisements compromise MoneySmart.sg's integrity as a source of personal finance information, Mr Nair said that advertorials, for instance, are "clearly marked" and primarily serve to let brands showcase their products. "If their product is inherently great, the numbers will speak for themselves," he pointed out.

Moreover, all of MoneySmart.sg's partners - which include all three local banks and an insurance broker that represents most major insurance products here - are disclosed prominently on the website, added Mr Nair.

The portal enjoys 1.5 million page views a month and counts digital news sites AsiaOne.com, MSN.com and Yahoo! as content syndication partners. It is also one of at least six active personal finance portals in Singapore today; among its competitors are GET.com, Moneyline and iMoney.

Chua Boon Ping, CEO of SPH Media Fund, said: "We were very deliberate in choosing one company in this space and this is the first finance-related investment we've made. Overall, the package is there . . . there is potential (in MoneySmart.sg) as a regional play.

"I've known Vinnie (Lauria, of Golden Gate Ventures) for a while; he's an early investor, and obviously you want to look for an early investor that you can trust."

Mr Lauria, whose venture capital firm together with the National Research Foundation in 2013 invested S$589,000 as seed funding into MoneySmart.sg (despite the startup's then dismal financials), told BT that it had demonstrated growth - through its good retention rates and an expanding product line - and that he had identified with Mr Nair's pains as a "failed entrepreneur", having too failed as a first-time founder himself.

On Tuesday, SPH shares closed one Singapore cent higher at S$3.83.