Singapore fintech M-DAQ bags S$200m in Series D funding round

HOMEGROWN fintech startup M-DAQ has raised around S$200 million in investments from Asian private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners, which anchored the Series D round of fundraising, the company said on Wednesday. (See Amendment note.)

The funds will "support M-DAQ's global expansion and creation of a new fintech ecosystem", the company said.

With the investment, Affinity will join M-DAQ's board with a joint controlling stake with M-DAQ's management and staff, as well as partner the fintech to strengthen its market position as a global FX specialist.

Founder and chief executive of M-DAQ Richard Koh said: "We are privileged to have found in Affinity a strong believer-partner to pursue our third five-year strategic plan with a view of a public outing, including executing a series of carefully curated inorganic growth plans."

Affinity's managing director and head of South-east Asia Benny Lim added that the firm is "excited" to partner M-DAQ.

He said: "We are also immediately seeking synergistic areas of collaboration with our existing portfolio companies which are leading players in their respective countries or sectors."

M-DAQ, which turned net profitable since the beginning of 2018, is a fintech enterprise Software-as-a-Service company focused on providing specialised technology-enabled financial services to enterprise customers and other downstream fintechs.

The investment is Affinity's first technology investment in South-east Asia, and the private equity firm will join a list of international strategic and financial investors in M-DAQ, including Ant Group, EDBI, NTT Communications, Samsung and Kiwoom Shinhan.

Amendment note: An earlier version of this article stated that the amount raised was in USD. M-DAQ has since clarified that it is actually in SGD. The article above has been revised to reflect this.