Two GoBear co-founders resign; Indonesia comparison business to close

Singapore

TWO co-founders of fintech startup GoBear have resigned and will leave by the end of the year, and the company is to close down its Indonesia financial comparison business just about a year after expanding to that market, The Business Times has learned from sources.

GoBear chief executive Adrian Chng informed employees last Thursday about the departure of two of the company's four co-founders, chief technology officer Ivonne Bojoh and chief commercial officer Marnix Zwart, BT understands.

Ms Bojoh declined to comment on questions from BT, and Mr Zwart could not be reached.

A spokesman for GoBear declined to comment on the reasons for their departure, but said: "We can confirm that we recently made personnel changes within our organisation. Such decisions are never taken lightly, but are not uncommon for a growth-stage company like GoBear."

Former chief executive and fellow co-founder Andre Hesselink left GoBear in July 2018, but is still listed as a special advisor to the startup in his LinkedIn profile.

The latest departures thus leave chief financial officer Frank Stevenaar as the sole remaining co-founder.

BT further understands that GoBear's move to shutter its Indonesian comparison business will happen by the end of January, and that about 10 employees there will be laid off.

The company's spokesman also declined to comment on this.

The Singapore-headquartered startup, which runs a comparison site for financial products, also operates in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam; it is said to have ceased operations of the comparison platform in Malaysia in July.

In a statement on Wednesday, the company's spokesman said of the shuttering of the core business in Indonesia and Malaysia: "GoBear's purpose is to improve financial health across Asia Pacific. Financial literacy is a key challenge in both Indonesia and Malaysia and GoBear's online presence within these markets is shifting to a content model to drive critical financial education."

BT has reached out to GoBear for further comment on whether its content platform in Malaysia is revenue-generating, and what business model it will adopt for the content platform in Indonesia.

Regulatory filings of Woodpecker Asia Tech, the parent company which operates the GoBear platform but may not fully represent the startup's business, indicate that S$21.4 million in net cash was used for operations in 2018, leaving a cash balance of S$5.9 million at the year-end.

That figure would imply a three-month runway if no further funding is raised.

Woodpecker ran up a net loss of S$22.1 million for FY2018 ended December, up 31.4 per cent from the previous year. It had recorded revenue of S$6.2 million in 2018, with S$4.7 million from click revenue and S$1.5 million from advertising.

While revenue grew by over 50 per cent that year, the bottom line was hit by expenses, such as S$10.1 million in staff costs and S$9.9 million in marketing expenses.

GoBear has more than 180 employees listed on the professional networking site LinkedIn.

In May, GoBear said in a statement that it had, up till that point, raised US$80 million from Walvis Participaties, a Dutch venture capital fund and financial services firm Aegon.

The startup debuted in in 2015 as a joint venture between these two firms.

GoBear claims to have served more than 40 million users in their searches for information on more than 1,800 personal finance products, such as insurance, credit cards and loans.

In May, Mr Chng had said that the latest funding would be used for "priority areas of product, technology, senior management and technical talent".

In October last year, GoBear partnered alternative credit-scoring provider CredoLab to launch a product that enables lenders to extend credit using artificial intelligence in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

In the May statement, Mr Chng was listed as a co-founder of CredoLab.