BankBazaar invests in Singapore expansion
BankBazaar, an Indian comparison site for insurance, loans, credit cards and other personal finance products, announced it is injecting SGD1m ($736,000) capital into its Singapore unit. The funds will be used to scale technology and establish the first marketplace of this type in Singapore. Experiencing spectacular growth in its home market, according to Adhil Shetty, the firm's co-founder and CEO, the company hopes to replicate its success in Singapore and is currently exploring other markets in Asia and the Middle East.

 

Delhi: A&A Dukaan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd; which runs financial services marketplace BankBazaar.com, on Tuesday said it has invested one million Singapore dollars, (about Rs5 crore) in its wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore that will operate BankBazaar.sg portal.

The funds will be used for scaling technology and team expansion.

“BankBazaar is experiencing (a) spectacular growth in India and we are looking to replicate that winning formula in Singapore. While the Indian market continues to be my focus, we believe the future of fintech is global and Singapore is one of its capitals," Adhil Shetty, co-founder and chief operating officer, BankBazaar, said in an interview.

According to Shetty, the Singapore unit will start generating revenue from the next quarter, and he expects revenue from the city state to grow to 10% by March 2017.

Founded in 2008 by Adhil, Arjun Shetty and Rati Rajkumar, Chennai-based BankBazaar in February started operations in Singapore, its first international outpost.

Aman Narain, former global head of digital banking at Standard Chartered Bank, is BankBazaar’s chief executive of international operations, based in Singapore. The unit offers financial products such as loans and credit cards.

Shetty said the Singapore market is larger than the Indian market in dollar terms. “Singapore has a great market potential. The country is very different from India in terms of consuming financial products; they (consumers in Singapore) take a larger (amount of) household credit, overall consume more mortgages and credit cards; and because it is in dollar value, the average ticket size also is larger", he said.

BankBazaar is investing ₹ 55 crore, (or close to 40% of its total expenses) in print, digital and television marketing in India and abroad.

Through its portal, BankBazaar provides financial products such as credit card, loans and insurance, encompassing 11 product categories listed from more than 75 financial institutions in India, whereby a user can search for offers, compare options and apply for the financial product. The website receives nine million visits a month, Shetty said.

BankBazaar is eyeing to launch electronic know your customer (eKYC)=based mutual fund products in India in coming weeks. Backed by Amazon, Fidelity Growth Partners, Mousse Partners, Sequoia Capital and Walden International, the company has raised $80 million so far.