South-east Asia’s tech unicorns may look more like banks in the future

[SINGAPORE] A couple of years ago, banking would not have been the avenue people imagined South-east Asia’s tech unicorns would take in pursuit of growth and sustainability.

Now, most of South-east Asia’s tech unicorns have a bank of sorts under their belt – Grab has GXS Bank in Singapore, GX Bank in Malaysia and Superbank in Indonesia, while Sea has MariBank in Singapore and SeaBank in Indonesia and the Philippines. Sea also operates Ryt Bank as a joint venture with YTL Group.

Even GoTo has backed Bank Jago in Indonesia.