Asian family offices, Insignia bless YouTrip with US$25.5m pre-Series A funding

Singapore

IT MAY seem unconventional for an early-stage startup to receive strong backing from family offices. But YouTrip, a Singapore-based mobile wallet operator, sees this "patient capital" as a strength as it embarks on South-east Asian expansion.

On Thursday, the fintech startup announced US$25.5 million in pre-Series A funding round from "major Asian family offices" alongside venture firm Insignia Ventures Partners.

"We really enjoy working with Asian family offices, partly because they are the long-term patient capital," YouTrip co-founder and CEO Caecilia Chu told The Business Times.

Launched in August 2018, YouTrip's multi-currency mobile wallet comes linked with a prepaid Mastercard, issued by EZ-link. The wallet, which can store up to S$3,000, allows travellers to pay in some 150 currencies at wholesale exchange rates with no transaction fees or foreign exchange markup. YouTrip instead earns revenue from charging merchants a commission for purchases made with its product.

The app also allows for the exchange and storage of 10 selected currencies, acting as a money changing tool for users.

The fresh funding will be used for YouTrip to step out beyond Singapore into the rest of South-east Asia, starting with one or two markets, said Ms Chu. She did not elaborate on specific markets eyed, but said that announcements would be made in the next six to 12 months.

"We know that our ambition is very big and it will be expensive; it takes a lot of money to build what we've set out to do. So we felt that families with deep roots in Asia not only contribute a network, but truly want us to succeed," she said.

YouTrip is also looking to hire more engineering talent to beef up its payments infrastructure and product features, she added. The startup currently has about 70 employees in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The travel market in South-east Asia represents immense untapped potential for fintechs, said Pachara Lawjindakul, principal at Insignia Ventures Partners.

"YouTrip is led by an experienced team of founders and executive team who are perfectly positioned to capitalise on this opportunity. The success of the initial launch in Singapore provides a great foundation to develop a strong roadmap for growing the multi-currency and cross-border payments ecosystem in South-east Asia," she said in a press statement.

Competitors to YouTrip would include UK-based fintech Revolut, as well as multi-currency cards by banks, which are offering increasingly low fees and attractive terms. Traditional credit and debit cards can come with overseas transaction fees as high as 3.5 per cent, and a currency conversion markup as high as 5 per cent.

YouTrip's mobile wallet app has seen over 200,000 downloads to date and processed over 1 million transactions.