Minterest Is The Borrower-Lender Matchmaker For Southeast Asia

The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards are a yearly showcase of the best and brightest in fintech. In preparation for its biggest installment yet in May 2018, we're profiling the companies competing for the BZ Awards.

Our next feature is on Minterest.

What does your company do? What unique problem does it solve?

Ronnie Chia, co-founder and COO: Minterest operates a peer-to-business online lending platform connecting small medium enterprises (“SMEs”) with investors in respect of the former’s borrowing requirements. Simply, we operate a financial market place where loans are requested by companies and invested by the public. We aim to empower both borrowers and investors to achieve their financing and investment objectives through financial inclusion. We aim to bridge the financing gap for the underserved and unbanked businesses in Singapore and the Southeast Asian region. The founding and management team has more than 155 years of banking experience and brings strong financial expertise to assist borrowers in their financing requirements, thereby delivering well-structured investment solutions to the investors.

The matching of borrowers and investors are seamless and carried out digitally using our online platform. Investors have a dashboard to monitor their investments on a real time basis and an e-wallet where money used for investments and their returns are stored. Every deal is run through our proprietary algorithm where static and dynamic data are used to analyse the creditworthiness of each borrower. Only those that clear our requirements are listed on the platform for investment.

Minterest is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and holds a Capital Market Services Licence to deal in securities.

Who are your customers?

As we are essentially a lending market place, SMEs and investors are both our customers.

How long have you been in business?

We have been in business for nine months, have arranged a total of SGD11 million worth of loans for our SME borrowers.

Where are you located?

We are located in Singapore.

Who is your company's leadership? What kind of experience do they have?

The company was founded by three former bankers who have worked with and known each other for between 12 to 17 years. It is the common vision of bringing financial inclusion that brought us together to deliver on a vision and mission where we aim to contribute to a financial ecosystem that serves rather than rules. The three founders have a combined financial and banking experience of 70 years and together with other members of the top team, boasts a combined 155 years’ of experience in international banks.

Who are your investors, if any?

The company is currently funded by the three co-founders and other investors.

Is there anything else Benzinga should know about your company?

We were recently recognised as the top 25 Fintech Companies in Asia Pacific by APAC CIO Outlook.

For further details on Minterest, please visit us at www.minterest.sg

To check out companies like Minterest for yourself, grab a ticket to the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards May 15-16 in New York.