Sometimes, the easiest way to find a great idea for a startup is to look beyond the current problem you’re solving for your customers.
That’s exactly what worked for the founders of KPay. Davis Chan and his co-founders previously helped small and medium-sized merchants optimize their revenue and traffic in Asia, but they eventually noticed how inefficient managing payments and finances was for their customers.
Traditional financial solutions for merchants and SMBs do not effectively cater to the modern needs for business agility, integration, and data-informed decision-making, Chan said. “This fragmented approach results in inefficiencies, higher costs, and a lack of actionable business insights.”
That insight led them to start KPay, a one-stop financial management platform for merchants and SMBs. The company has seen decent traction in the three years since its inception: it now serves 45,000 merchants in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, and partners with more than 150 SaaS providers, banks, and financial service firms. The company says it aims to increase its partnerships to serve more businesses in Asia.
“We’re investing in payment technologies that offer greater flexibility, speed, and security to merchants to accept all major payments, supporting payroll, bill settlement, and both local and global remittance as a unified financial management platform,” Chan told TechCrunch.
Investors certainly seem to have noticed the opportunity here: KPay recently secured $55 million in a Series A round led by London-based investment firm Apis Partners.
The fresh cash from the Series A will be put toward product development, enhance its go-to-market speed, improve customer experience through organic growth, as well as to expand into new Asian markets and support inorganic growth strategies such as strategic mergers and acquisitions, Christopher Yu, CFO of KPay, told TechCrunch. In addition, the startup is exploring how AI will improve the merchant experience, increase operational efficiency, and boost revenues.
Yu did not provide specific details about KPay’s revenue and profitability, but said its revenue had achieved a compound annual growth rate of 166% since its inception.
“Looking ahead, our goal is to enable 1 million merchants within the next five years, creating an inclusive digital economy where neighborhood businesses have the same opportunities as major brands,” Chan said.
The company has about 440 staff across its bases in Hong Kong and Singapore.