Pintec Technology launches global expansion from new HQ in Singapore

Singapore

NASDAQ-LISTED Chinese fintech solutions provider Pintec Technology has made Singapore its international headquarters (HQ) to expand the global business and be closer to its joint venture (JV) partners.

It also has plans to set up a research and development centre in the city-state to develop cutting-edge technologies for international markets.

Pintec's president Zhou Jing said on Wednesday at the opening ceremony for the startup's base in the Republic: "The new international headquarters marks a key milestone of Pintec's international strategy to explore opportunities to replicate our success in China to overseas markets, enabling Pintec to better fulfil the global demand for responsible and sustainable inclusive financing solutions."

The company, which was incorporated in 2016 and debuted on Nasdaq in 2018, will leverage its cloud computing, Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and scalable SaaS (Software as a Service) model to provide overseas markets its financing solutions, including point-of-sale financing solutions, personal and business instalment loans, as well as wealth management and insurance products and services.

SaaS is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted.

The firm, which counts Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi's subsidiary as one of its early backers, posted US$10.1 million in net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders for the fiscal year 2018.

Pintec, which eventually plans to employ 20-40 staff in Singapore, will also establish an independent data centre here to help groom local talent in technology.

Another key advantage of setting shop in the city-state, apart from using Singapore as its launchpad for global expansion, is that Pintec will be closer to business partners, Ms Zhou told The Business Times.

Pintec expects the international HQ to contribute significantly to revenue in three to five years, she said, adding that the company will tap the potential in the South-east Asian market through its JVs in Singapore.

Last year, United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Pintec entered into a JV named Avatec.ai (Avatec) that offers digital credit assessment solution, with the bank planning to invest up to S$12 million in Avatec over the next two years.

Pintec's other venture - with insurer FWD Group - is Pivot Fintech which last Wednesday launched a digital wealth management service known as SquirrelSave for end-consumers.

Pivot's chief executive officer Victor Lye said he aims to hit a target of S$300 million in assets under management for SquirrelSave by 2022.

The service, available for investment sums as low as S$1, taps machine learning algorithms and AI to design and manage personalised investment portfolios for investors, allowing real-time on-demand portfolio creation with personalised risk management and dynamic asset allocation.

Simply put, a SquirrelSave investor will first indicate his risk appetite or have it determined through a game-like process based on which AI will present a personalised portfolio extracted from the universe of United States-listed exchange traded funds (ETFs) that matches the investor's risk profile with the best return at that moment.

Mr Lye, who has about 20 years of experience in investment, wealth management and insurance, said that SquirrelSave is unlike many other investment managers including robo-advisors in that the latter pigeonhole investors into pre-selected portfolios.

SquirrelSave imposes a flat fee of 0.5 per cent per annum and a performance fee of 10 per cent only if the investor's portfolio makes a gain.