Top Early Stage Fintech Startups from Thailand to Follow in 2023

In Thailand, fintech innovation has been largely driven by the country’s large banking institutions. The incumbents have entered into partnerships with startups and taken participations in companies in the sector to acquire the latest fintech developments and launch new innovative products.

Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), for example, has made several investments in the fintech sector, injecting USD 100 million into Indonesia’s digital finance platform Akulaku in February 2022. Kasikorn Bank, meanwhile, has provided institutional support to fintech startups through the Katalyst Startup Launchpad. competition, allowing winners to receive training, prize money and a chance to work with the bank and its subsidiaries.

Although Thailand’s established commercial banks have been the driving force behind the country’s fintech innovation, recent regulatory efforts by the Bank of Thailand are set to pave the way for strong growth in the financial startup scene.

Most recently, the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued regulations requiring virtual asset service providers to establish a digital wallet management system to guarantee effective custody. The new rules target crypto custodians or service providers that offer crypto storage services and aim to provide regulatory clarity and protect consumers.

The central bank, meanwhile, is preparing to issue virtual banking licenses, revealing plans to grant up to three licenses in the first phase, the BOT said earlier this year. The central bank, which aims for Thailand’s first digital banks to begin operations by 2025, hopes the new regulations will increase competition in the banking sector, promote innovation and expand access to loans.

With fintech poised for growth in Thailand, we’ve decided to take a look at some of the country’s up-and-coming fintech startups. For this list, we’ve focused on early-stage ventures that have recently secured funding and are poised for growth this year and beyond.

Jet

Founded in 2019, Beam offers a one-click payment solution and strives to make online transactions easier on e-commerce and social platforms. The solution supports common payment channels such as bank transfers and e-wallets, as well as new payment methods including installment payments and buy now pay later (BNPL) schemes from ecosystem partners such as Atome and Pace.

Beam claims the payment process takes just 20 seconds to complete, and says merchants using the payment solution have increased payment success by up to 30%. The company’s typical clients are medium-sized companies that process a few hundred orders daily, and sell in fashion, beauty, home and home and electronics.

Beam is currently focused on Thailand, but plans to expand throughout the Southeast Asian region. The startup secured a US$2.5 million seed funding round in November 2022, which it said it would use to launch in new locations, hire staff and acquire more salespeople.

FWX

FWX, formerly known as Forward, is a digital asset and blockchain startup founded by a group of developers and technology researchers.

FWX has developed a decentralized derivatives platform built on Ethereum virtual machine (EVM)-based chains, which allows users to predict price direction or hedge their risk against price fluctuations using an advanced protocol called Automated Position Hedger.

The platform currently offers two main features: a decentralized derivatives exchange for perpetual trading of futures written on major crypto-tokens, including bitcoin and ether; and lending and borrowing pool (LBP).

FWX raised US$5 million in a seed funding round in September 2022. The round brought the company’s valuation to US$50 million, TechNode reported. The start-up is currently working to secure a Series A funding round.

Eazy Digital

Founded in 2022, Eazy Digital is an insurtech software-as-a-service (SaaS) company founded by insurance industry veterans.

To help insurance companies digitize their operations and automate their processes, the company has developed an “agency management platform” that allows for quoting, campaign tracking, dashboarding, profile management, onboarding, training and more.

The solution is aimed at small and medium-sized insurance companies that lack the resources to digitize their processes and distribution, so that they can progress quickly and at low costs while scaling and competing with larger companies.

Eazy Digital raised US$850,000 in an oversubscribed seed funding round in January 2023. The company said it plans to use the proceeds to fund product development, marketing efforts to expand its existing customer base and build out its team.

Atato

Founded in 2018, Atato is a cryptocurrency wallet and custody provider. The company develops applications that allow individuals and businesses to securely store, trade and manage digital assets, as well as access decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT) and decentralized applications (DApps).

Atato has built a fully regulated custody solution that enables institutions to securely and conveniently manage their digital assets. The solution combines enterprise-class security with multi-party computation (MPC) technology, and supports customizable roles and transaction policies. It aims to reduce the risk associated with managing private seed phrase/key management, and address the risk of human failure or misconduct.

Atato secured a US$6 million Series A in July 2022 that it said it would use to expand its product offering and accelerate the completion of existing beta development products. This includes retail development, user growth, geographic expansion and talent acquisition.

Atato says it is headquartered in Singapore, but maintains a strong presence in its home base in Bangkok, Thailand, where the team animates a dynamic blockchain community.