Published : 6 years ago, on 06/07/2018

• AsiaCollect aims to automate and streamline consumer debt collection in Southeast Asia through a more efficient, technology-driven, and customer-oriented collections strategy
• New capital from SIG Asia Investments and Dymon Asia Ventures will be used to support growth initiatives; including client acquisition, technology enhancements, collections infrastructure and team expansion, and purchasing non-performing consumer loans (NPL) portfolios

AsiaCollect, a pioneer in providing integrated Credit Management Services (CMS) in Southeast Asia, has raised USD4.5 million after closing its recent investment round led by global technology investment firm SIG Asia Investments.

Dymon Asia Ventures, the venture capital arm of Dymon Asia Capital, a Singapore-based alternative investment management firm, returned to co-invest in this round after investing USD1 million in AsiaCollect’s pre-series A equity round in August last year.

AsiaCollect delivers maximum CMS efficiency for its clients through an integrated product offering, which includes CMS Outsourcing, CMS Advisory Services, Debt Purchasing, and Software-As-A-Service (SaaS).The company’s proprietary technology streamlines and automates a majority of debt collection processes, while minimising the need for field collection, which has traditionally been associated with high reputational risk for lenders and a distressing experience for consumers.

Mr. Tomasz Borowski, chief executive officer and co-founder of AsiaCollect, said, “We are thrilled to have SIG on board as they have a unique track record of picking winners in financial services. As we move into the purchasing segment of the value chain, we are increasingly attracting significant investor interest, both from an equity and debt standpoint. Moreover, investors view the debt collections business as a classic counter-cyclical play, which is becoming increasingly important as we move into what looks like the peak of this cycle.”

“Over the medium to long-term, purchasing NPL portfolios off banks’ balance sheets is likely to be a major driver of revenue growth for AsiaCollect. We have already purchased our first portfolio from a large financial institution in Vietnam, and we are focused on executing on many more such transactions going forward. We are supported by a highly experienced data science team in Ukraine who brings with them strong knowledge and expertise in pricing portfolios through business cycles. We will continue to leverage this and differentiate ourselves in a market where there is a dearth of professional debt collectors and purchasers and that is dominated by fly-by-night operators,” added Mr. Tomasz Borowski.

AsiaCollect will use the new funds to support growth initiatives, including client acquisition in its core markets, enhancements to its SaaS solution, expansion of its collections’ infrastructure and teams, and to continue purchasing NPL portfolios. AsiaCollect has seen sustained and rapid growth since its 2016 launch and is currently managing over USD40 million in assets of over 10 financial institutions and digital lenders across Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The company estimates that there will be over $45 billion of consumer NPLs[1] generated in its core markets of Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines in the next five years.

AsiaCollect currently helps bank and non-bank lenders recover their NPLs by reaching out to customers through automated SMSs, interactive voice recordings, and predictive dialing systems. The aim is to increase not only the likelihood of reaching the customer but also the recovery rates for each targeted customer by employing psychometric analysis that allows operators to communicative effectively with different personality types. In addition to carrying out collections on behalf of lenders, AsiaCollect also licenses its technology using a SaaS model and provides bespoke advice for clients with nascent in-house collections processes.

Led by an international leadership team with decades of experience in CMS and consumer finance in emerging markets, AsiaCollect secured its seed capital from FORUM, the largest fintech venture builder in Emerging Asia, and Fintonia Group, a leading early-stage fintech investor in Southeast Asia.