Aspire, the Singapore-based neobank that wants to become the financial operating system for SMEs, has raised an oversubscribed $100 million Series C round. Investors included Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital SEA, along with Paypal, Tencent, LGT Capital Partners and returning investors.
TechCrunch last covered Aspire when it raised its Series B in 2021. Founded in 2018 to provide working capital loans for small to medium-sized businesses, Aspire began offering more services, including bank accounts for cross-border businesses, corporate cards, payable and receivable management and automated invoice processing connected to financial management software.
Co-founder and CEO Andrea Baronchelli says that over the past 12 months, Aspire has tripled its annualized total payment volumes to $12 billion, serving over 15,000 businesses in Southeast Asa.
Baronchelli told TechCrunch that the startup focuses “primarily on new age business whose purchase decisions are driven more and more by UX and usability, from single director businesses to 500+ employee.” …
