In a bid to further boost its credit card business, Thai financial technology startup Masii has acquired events discovery and ticketing platform One Place for an undisclosed amount, according to an e27 report.
The acquisition comes ten months after Masii, which offers an online platform that enables users to compare financial products such as credit card, car insurance, and travel insurance, secured THB77 million (US$2.35 million) in its Series A round backed by Thai conglomerate B. Grimm and European Venture Capital Fund.
According to the report, One Place, started in 2011 by Eliot Delunas, Adam Selley, Liam Cooper, and Andy Jones, will join the Masii.com family and move its office to Masii’s headquarters in Bangkok.
One Place sells tickets online for concerts, films, theatre, art, meetings, and other events. Following the acquisition, One Place’s website will be integrated with Masii.com “for greater transaction security”.
On its website, Masii claims to have helped over 2 million Thais compare the best offers for products like car insurance, credit cards, personal loans, and home loans. The comparisons have resulted in nearly 75,000 customers applying for financial products on Masii.com each month.
“We are committed to bringing Thailand’s financial products online to save time and money for our users,” the company said.
Masii’s co-founder and CEO Maxwell Meyer was quoted by e27 as saying that the aim of the acquisition is to make One Place “the leading” ticketing site for cultural events in the Thai capital and all over the country.
“As a Thai company, we saw the need to create a completely localized offering that emphasizes trust and transparency and a fully integrated connection to our credit card and insurance partners. We’re thrilled that Masii deals are becoming so popular and we are growing our team accordingly” said Tom Kiatcheeranun, Masii CTO, during the company’s launch in 2016.
The market for price comparison sites has been taking shape in Asia, with investors racing to back startups offering financial comparison services. In May, Kuala Lumpur-based financial comparison startup Jirnexu closed a US$11-million Series B round led by Japan’s SBI Group and backed by SIG Asia Investments.
Jirnexu operates RinggitPlus in Malaysia and KrediGoGo in Indonesia. Both sites aggregate offerings from banks and financial companies.
Last Year, The World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, led the US$50 million Series B fundraising round in Compare Asia Group, the parent company of Hong Kong-based price comparison website MoneyHero.
In its 2015 report, Accenture said fintech financing in Asia Pacific more than doubled to US11.2 billion during that year, from US$5.2 billion a year earlier. The largest share of 2015 Asia-Pacific fintech investment deals were in payments (40%) and lending (25%), which have traditionally been the sole domain of banks.
Editor: Ben Jiang