Standard Chartered and Atome Financial have announced a 10-year multi-product strategic partnership, combining their strengths in finance and technology to deliver a wide range of financial services to consumers and merchants across key markets in Asia. Atome Financial is a business unit under Advance Intelligence Group, which recently closed a $400million+ Series D financing round from an investor consortium led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Warburg Pincus, valuing the company at more than $2billion.
Standard Chartered is investing in Atome Financial, which operates Asia’s largest buy now pay later platform, Atome, as well as digital lending platform Kredit Pintar in Indonesia. This marks one of Standard Chartered’s largest strategic investments in a fintech to-date and supports its ambition to expand its reach and scale within the mass market segment via a digital-first approach, underpinned by digital acquisition and new partnership models.
The partnership will initially include buy now pay later services, targeting to roll out in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam in the next few months, and later expand to include digital lending products. Standard Chartered plans to provide financing of $500millon and is committed to supporting Atome Financial’s growth in the future. This funding will enable Atome Financial to grow and connect a wider ecosystem of merchants to a larger customer base, improving product access and financial inclusion for consumers across the region. At the same time, Atome Financial’s customers will gain access to more innovative financial services, easily accessed via their mobile devices.
This announcement kickstarts a 10-year multi-product strategic partnership to deliver personal banking solutions across Asia. Atome Financial brings extensive experience in consumer finance and a cost-efficient, scalable digital platform. Coupled with Standard Chartered’s extensive footprint and banking expertise, this strategic partnership aspires to reach over 16 million customers by 2025 and gain access to multiple financial ecosystems in order to capture a share of the digital lending market, valued at $92billion by 2025 in South East Asia alone.
Judy Hsu, CEO, Consumer, Private and Business Banking, Standard Chartered Bank, said, “Riding on our successful digital ventures and partnerships, we continue to be fearlessly innovative in disrupting ourselves to better serve our clients. This partnership with Atome Financial gives us the opportunity to be part of the rapidly growing digital consumer finance ecosystem and provides convenient and relevant digital financial products to complement and enrich clients’ digital lives. Our deep knowledge of Asia’s markets coupled with Atome Financial’s experience in digital consumer finance will allow us to reach even more customers and drive greater financial participation of those underserved and underbanked.”
Jefferson Chen, Co-Founder, Group Chairman and CEO of Advance Intelligence Group, and CEO of Atome Financial, said, “We are excited to have the support and partnership of Standard Chartered in building towards our mission of using technology to help people advance towards a better life. By providing consumers with easier, simpler, and more convenient access to a full suite of digital-first financial services, we can accelerate broader financial inclusion across both developed and emerging markets in Asia. At the same time, this partnership with Standard Chartered will allow us to expand our merchant network and help retailers increase their customer base and basket sizes, contributing to economic growth across the region.”
