SINGAPORE payments company Nium aims to break even in time for a US initial public offering (IPO) within two years, a positive signal for South-east Asia’s struggling startup ecosystem.

Nium, valued at about US$2 billion, is preparing to go public in the US by the second quarter of 2025, co-founder and chief executive officer Prajit Nanu said in an interview in Singapore. Nium, which like larger US peer Stripe helps companies handle payments, more than doubled its revenue to US$82 million last year even as South-east Asia’s tech and startup industries were hit by rising interest rates and higher levels of inflation.

The company, which expanded rapidly by buying London-based Ixaris, Singapore’s SoCash as well as Wirecard Forex India over the past two years, expects to break even within 12 months and be profitable before it goes public, Nanu noted.

“We should be ready for an IPO by the end of next year, and then start looking at how the market is in 2025,” Nanu added. “No one can time the market, but the focus for us over the next 18 months is to be fully prepared.”

Nium, whose backers include Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, its sister firm Temasek Holdings and California-based Riverwood Capital, will remain on the lookout for acquisition targets in markets including Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, Nanu shared. The company is looking to snap up two to three payments startups over the next 12 months and has set aside US$50 million in cash to fund the purchases.

Nanu co-founded Nium, which means “rules” in Sanskrit, as a cross-border remittance service in 2014. After growing up in Mumbai, he got a taste of what it’s like to build businesses during his dozen years at upstart companies including Adventity and WNS Global Services.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

He came up with the idea after trying to send money from India to Thailand to organize a bachelor’s party for a friend in 2013. He ran into a problem as a Thai resort refused to take his credit card and insisted on a bank transfer, while his bank in India requested an extensive list of documents for transferring US$640.

Today, Nium counts Thailand’s Kasikornbank and Singapore Telecommunications among its almost 400 clients. Its software helps businesses accept online payments, and allows them to send money and issue physical and virtual credit cards. The company has over 1,000 employees across more than 20 offices worldwide. BLOOMBERG