Neat Raises Fresh Funding as COVID-19 Drives Demand for its FinTech Platform to help SMEs Grow Internationally

Neat, a Hong Kong-based FinTech company offering online company incorporation and multi-currency wallets to cross-border SMEs, today announced raising a US$4M extension to their US$11M Series A round closed in April 2020. Existing investors MassMutual Ventures, Pacific Century Group, Linear Capital and Robby Hilkowitz as well as new investor Vectr Fintech participated in the Series A Extension.

Neat’s vision is to enable the entrepreneur economy and support SMEs trading globally. While global travel has come to a standstill, cross-border trade has not. SMEs trading internationally are increasingly looking for online alternatives to facilitate their international business needs.

Neat’s online company incorporation package and fully-digital multi-currency wallet, perfectly fit the needs of international entrepreneurs today.

While COVID-19 has caused an economic slowdown, new company incorporations are still on the rise with more than 175,000 new companies incorporated in the UK in Q2 of 2020 compared to 170,000 the same period last year; in Hong Kong, over 27,000 companies were incorporated in Q2 of 2020.^[1] These are companies that may previously have turned to high street banking providers, but are now looking at digital alternatives to get their businesses up-and-running.

“Some of the world’s most successful companies were born during or just after the financial crisis of 2008, think of WhatsApp and Uber. The majority of businesses founded during COVID-19 will have a digital-first mindset, which means they will have an opportunity to start trading globally from day one. We’re excited to be supporting this new wave of international entrepreneurs,” said David Rosa, CEO of Neat.

With its offering of online company incorporation, multi-currency wallet, corporate expense cards and international remittances, Neat is primarily focussed on SMEs trading between Europe and Asia. Over the next few years, Neat aims to make international trade frictionless by not only offering a way for customers to move money, but also making use of a vast ecosystem of tools that automate their business processes (payroll, accounting, logistics, etc.), to ultimately enable anyone to run an international business with ease.

“Neat has shown great resilience and momentum throughout the current pandemic. The demand for online alternatives to banks has gone up, and the team at Neat has proven their ability to capture this opportunity while maintaining strong unit economics. The new capital injection will allow Neat to double down on their customer acquisition efforts to serve more SMEs looking for a better way to manage their business finances.” said Mark Munoz, Managing Partner at Vectr Fintech Partners