SINGAPORE - Homegrown personal finance portal MoneySmart.sg has raised $2.8 million in a Series A funding round led by Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) investment arm.
SPH Media Fund, a corporate venture capital fund, was joined by a contingent of capital firms including Convergence Ventures, OPT Sea, Golden Gate Ventures, as well as a number of individuals like SingCapital's chief executive Alfred Chia and PropNex chief executive Mohammad Ismail.
MoneySmart.sg curates and aggregates at least 16 different types of personal financial products on its single digital marketplace - from credit cards to insurance to home loans - to help consumers maximise their money.
It draws 1.5 million page views a month and 500,000 in unique visitors.
In November last year, the start up bought over an Indonesian counterpart, now known as DuitPintar.com. DuitPintar's traffic data sees over half a million page views in a month.
Mr Vinod Nair, founder and chief executive of MoneySmart.sg, said that the new funds will go into the firm's product development, which includes building new products, tools and mobile phone apps.
It will also be used to expand the portal into a new market within the region, he said at a press briefing on Tuesday (Oct 6).
"With the rise of the middle class across South-east Asia, an increasing number of people are becoming more interested and sophisticated in financial investment knowledge," noted Mr Chua Boon Ping, chief executive of SPH Media Fund.
"There is a strong demand for a comprehensive site where people can look for and compare financial products that meet their individual needs," he said.
