8 October 2024, Singapore – Financial technology platform for the underserved middle class Surfin raises US$12.5 million from Insignia Ventures Partners. This funding comes as Surfin today serves 60 million lives across eight countries in three continents, with roughly US$2.7 billion in cumulative transactions. 

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Singapore, Surfin launched with consumer lending before expanding across financial services such as payments/remittance, credit card issuance, and wealth management. Using Al and analytics, Surfin strives to provide an ecosystem of transparent and innovative financial services to the growing, underbanked middle class. The company is present in Indonesia (since 2018), Vietnam (2018), Mexico (2018), Philippines (2018), Nigeria (2019), Kenya (2019), India (2021), Uganda (2022), and Australia (2023).

As it expanded its presence over the years, the company has accumulated numerous licenses across multiple jurisdictions over the years. In Surfin’s largest market, Indonesia, the company has P2P, mutual fund distribution, remittance, and payment gateway (incoming) licenses.

This Series A round is Surfin’s first round of external funding as the company has been bootstrapped since inception and lending is done out of its own balance sheet with no third-party debt. 

T-B: Surfin’s teams across Indonesia, India, Africa and Mexico

From Bali to Mexico, Consumer Loans to Credit Cards: Surfin’s Waves of Financial Technology Innovation

Surfin was founded by Dr Yanan Wu. Dr Wu has over 26 years of global investment experience, serving institutions and family offices, including stints at CITIC Prudential Fund and TD Asset Management Canada. He is no stranger to fintech as well, having launched and grown a robo-advisory startup prior to Surfin. He received a Ph.D in statistical physics from University Western Ontario in Canada and completed his post-doctoral research at Los Alamo National Lab in the USA.

Dr Yanan Wu, CEO and Founder of Surfin

Dr Wu notes, “Surfin’s vision has always been to build an ecosystem of financial technology services on top of our existing scalable and sustainable risk management system powered by AI and big data. It is a system that has already been stress-tested by 60 million users‘ behavior across three continents. More recently we’ve leveraged this system to launch remittance, payments, wealth management and credit card services that are taking our mission of financial inclusion deeper across the markets we are already present in.”

In 2023, Surfin’s wealth management product, Ayovest, launched in Indonesia, as a mutual fund trading platform for young, first time investors to invest productively and safely, starting from IDR 10,000. Ayovest has been operating effectively and has been licensed by the OJK since 2023.

Surfin’s wealth management product in Indonesia, Ayovest

Then in 2023, Surfin’s credit card business was established in Mexico, “Sufinc”. Sufinc was born out of a partnership with Visa for a credit card to bolster Surfin’s consumer finance presence in Central America. Monthly expenses can be paid at any point within the year, businesses can go months without needing to pay interest, and there are no annual commissions. This partnership with Visa allows Sufinc to be accepted at any establishment and online, anywhere in the world. 

Sufinc credit card for Mexico, in partnership with Visa

All these products in Surfin’s ecosystem are ultimately powered by a unified credit scoring engine, powered by AI and data analytics. This core technology has allowed Surfin to sustainably lend at scale across different geographies. It also unlocks the company’s entry into other use cases. 

Seasoned Finance Executives Drawn to Surfin’s Mission of Financial Inclusion in the Era of AI

More than 2500 people across the globe have joined Dr Wu on Surfin’s mission. Its leadership team includes former Shopee, Akulaku, and Baidu executives. Surfin is also advised by a board composed of accomplished, multi-hyphenate finance executives globally.

L-R: Surfin Board of Directors at the Surfin Investment Forum: 2. John A. Quelch CBE,  3. Mohamed Nasser Ismail,  4. John Fennell, 5. Michael Spence, 6. Dr Yanan Wu, 7. Bruce McGuire, 8. Felix Davidson at Surfin Investment Forum

Among them is Michael Spence, Philip H. Knight Professor Emeritus of Management in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, Adjunct Professor at Bocconi University in Milan, and Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford University. He is also a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001, for laying the foundations for the theory of markets with asymmetric information. 

Dr Spence shares, “Surfin has the potential to reshape financial mobility and inclusion for millions of families globally. I have a long-standing interest in asymmetric information in markets and the challenges it presents.  As Surfin addresses the information challenges of credit access through AI and data science, it is a privilege to be able to support its innovations and its mission of advancing financial inclusion.”

Surfin leverages AI and data science to deliver financial services with innovation and efficiency. I look forward to contributing to Surfin’s ongoing success and supporting its mission of advancing financial inclusion.’

On the board is also the former Executive Director and Global Head of Equity Capital Markets at SGX, Mohamed Nasser Ismail.

Nasser shares, “Credit scoring is a basic human right, but it is a right that has been out of reach for millions across the globe. But today, through the power of digital and AI technology, it is possible to do this at scale for the disenfranchised. Surfin’s expansive global presence and data platform is redefining how credit scoring can be done, making this basic human right a reality for more and more communities. This mission and Surfin’s approach, under Dr Wu’s leadership, is what ultimately drew me to play an active role in the company.”

While Surfin has already reached several markets globally on top of their consumer loans business, the company has ambitions to reach more consumers across income classes with a full stack of products, from robo-advisory to remittances.  

These ambitions for scale, paired with proven ability to scale a financial services product globally, laid the groundwork for a partnership with Insignia Ventures Partners, and Surfin’s first round of institutional funding.

Founding Managing Partner Yinglan Tan shares, “Surfin represents two key shifts in the way companies are growing from Southeast Asia. It is a company headquartered and operating in the region, but with a multi-country presence and global ambitions from early on. It is also a company leveraging the wave of AI transforming industry to deliver more equitable credit access to the underbanked. In a space that is highly competitive and challenging at scale, this combination of proven multi-market entry with licensed multi-jurisdiction products and robust risk management capabilities positions them in a unique place to scale. Their operational track record is more impressive considering they have been bootstrapped thus far. We are privileged to be working with Dr Wu and his team to scale their financial services ecosystem further, both in terms of reach and use cases.”