SuperAtom announced on Wednesday that it has raised $22 million in Series C financing led by Malaysia-based digital investment fund Nue 3 Capital. The funding, which values the Singapore-based company at $370 million, will be used to expand SuperAtom’s digital banking and credit products globally, starting with Mexico and the greater Latin America region. The company had previously raised $24 million from Gobi Partners and a consortium of investors.
Enlightened by the success story of Alipay, SuperAtom aims to offer a wide spectrum of financial products and facilitate financial inclusion in emerging markets like Southeast Asia where much of the population is underserved by financial institutions. According to research by Bain & Company, over six in 10 Southeast Asians remain underbanked or unbanked today with limited access to credit, and an even larger portion of the population is unfamiliar with wealth management.
“In the coming months, we will begin establishing a local presence in these countries by hiring local talent, applying for local financial licenses, and focusing on new product development,” said Scarlett Xiao, Founder and CEO of SuperAtom.
“Despite continued innovation in the banking sector, access to financial services remains limited for many global consumers,” said Felix Tang, CEO at Nue 3 Capital. “With the team’s proven track record in Indonesia, we strongly believe SuperAtom’s model can be scaled globally to help empower underbanked consumers. We’re thrilled to support their journey as they expand into new markets and kick off their next phase of growth.”
Founded in 2018 by Cheetah Mobile Co-Founder Scarlett Xiao, SuperAtom’s flagship product UangMe has become one of Indonesia’s leading credit platforms by delivering a seamless user experience and tapping into mature credit markets to provide local users with access to low-cost financing. In addition to its direct cash lending feature, SuperAtom last year introduced a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) feature allowing cash-tight shoppers to purchase first and pay later for the goods or services. To date, UangMe has attracted millions of users and disbursed hundreds of millions of dollars in loans since launching in 2018.
With the new capital, SuperAtom will continue to build on its success in Indonesia, engineering more products, and replicating UangMe’s model in other emerging markets like Mexico.
SuperAtom sees comprehensive financial services for emerging market users as an essential move to win market share. Lending and BNPL businesses have paved the way to better serve consumers and build trust with commercial partners while other add-on features on top of those would gain significant consumer adoption. (Last month, 197 McDonald’s restaurants across Indonesia began accepting UangMe’s BNPL feature as payment methods.) Moving forward, SuperAtom will introduce more disruptive products, including wealthtech products, which have never been seen in Southeast Asia
“We first invested into SuperAtom in 2019 and since then they have grown leaps and bounds in their mission to bring innovative financing options to underserved populations,” said Gobi Senior Partner, Kay-Mok Ku. “Data has shown that the demand for digital payments has strengthened globally since the pandemic and we are excited to continue supporting Scarlett and the team as they continue to expand further on the back of this demand.”
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