When Andrea Baronchelli co-founded Aspire in Singapore, the company set out with an ambitious vision: to create an all-in-one financial operating system for international, digital-first businesses. Seven years later, that vision has evolved from a regional ambition into a truly global reality.

In these two interviews—one recorded in Singapore and another captured on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during International Day—Andrea reflects on the journey of building Aspire from a Southeast Asian fintech into a company now operating across three continents. The interviews offer insight into the strategic decisions, learnings, and philosophies that have shaped Aspire’s expansion and approach to profitability in an increasingly competitive global fintech landscape.

The Moment of Expansion

The timing of these interviews is particularly significant. When Andrea spoke at International Day in New York, Aspire was on the cusp of a major expansion phase. Just weeks later, in December 2025, the company announced a series of landmark regulatory approvals that would validate many of the principles and strategies he articulates in these conversations.

Aspire secured a full Australian Financial Services License (AFSL), positioning the company to serve Australian businesses directly. In Europe, the company obtained an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license and established its European base in the Netherlands, enabling pan-European operations. And in the United States, Aspire registered as a Money Services Business (MSB) and as a Registered Investment Adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—approvals that would support a planned 2026 rollout.

To support this global expansion, Aspire also strengthened its leadership team with seasoned executives from leading fintech companies like Wise and Revolut, bringing deep expertise in international scaling and regulatory navigation.

Key Themes in These Conversations

Throughout these interviews, several core themes emerge that help explain Aspire’s trajectory and its approach to global growth:

Patience and Planning: Andrea emphasizes that in a regulated financial services business, there are no shortcuts. Building infrastructure, obtaining licenses, and integrating with financial systems takes time—and that’s a feature, not a bug. The company’s recent regulatory approvals across three major markets demonstrate the payoff of this patient, methodical approach.

The All-in-One Thesis: At the intersection of banking and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, Aspire has carved out a unique competitive advantage. By combining multicurrency banking with comprehensive financial management tools—now enhanced with AI—the company serves a market need that traditional, siloed providers cannot address.

Profitability with Purpose: Unlike many startups that prioritize growth at all costs, Andrea articulates a philosophy of building businesses that are both loved by customers and economically sustainable. This approach, shaped by Aspire’s origins in Asia where willingness to pay varies significantly, has become a competitive advantage as the company scales globally.

Multi-Market Thinking: Aspire’s clients are themselves global. They operate across borders, manage multiple currencies, employ teams in different time zones, and serve customers worldwide. By building natively for this reality—rather than adapting a single-market product—Aspire has positioned itself as the infrastructure layer for the next generation of international businesses.

Reading These Interviews

The Singapore interview, conducted by Paulo from Insignia Ventures Partners, explores Aspire’s founding journey, the strategic advantages of Singapore as a fintech hub, lessons from the Lazada exit, and Andrea’s philosophy on leadership and building for founders. The New York Stock Exchange interview, conducted during International Day, focuses on Aspire’s competitive advantage, the all-in-one financial OS thesis, the path to profitability, and the company’s strategy for balancing growth in existing markets with expansion into new ones.

Together, these conversations provide a window into how a Southeast Asian fintech is thinking about global expansion, regulatory strategy, and sustainable growth—insights that are particularly relevant as Aspire enters its next chapter of international scaling.

These interviews are part of the Southeast Asia Going Global series, produced by Insignia Ventures Partners and the New York Stock Exchange.

Part 1: Singapore

Paulo: So I guess we could start this chat with a trip down memory lane. You’ve been running Aspire for a couple of years now—seven years, if I’m not mistaken. I just wanted to get a sense of how your perspective has changed from the time you started Aspire to today, particularly regarding what it takes to really drive digital transformation, especially for finance in businesses. How much more challenging has it been, or how much easier has it been?

Andrea: Yeah, so it’s definitely been quite some time, and there have definitely been a lot of learnings along the journey. A couple of reflections that are quite close to me as I look back stand out. One is related to patience. We are a company that is regulated—we offer both financial services and software, which means it’s very important for us to plan well ahead when we launch in new geographies and introduce new products. We need to take the right time and be thoughtful about the timeline. For us, it’s been a learning that this planning—putting all the pieces together—requires patience and cannot be rushed. It’s very hard to cut corners and try to go faster than what’s possible. Planning better and more thoughtfully pays off in the long run.

The second reflection for me has been around the concept we call “all in one.” This is our product strategy that we’ve developed throughout this year, which seems simplistic at first. You might think, okay, a one-stop shop has been around for a long time. But for us, putting together banking and ERP for businesses is essentially the future of our industry. It works, and by continuing to build this all-in-one product that brings together these core propositions, it’s been a constant that has worked quite well.

Another learning is about the global angle. It’s true that a lot of our clients benefit greatly from having supplier service providers and employees sitting in Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia. We definitely help them a lot with handling those from a comparable perspective. But it’s also true that many of our clients have customers or their own clients coming from areas beyond Asia Pacific. It’s become increasingly important for us to make sure we cater to those needs by expanding our presence beyond the Asia Pacific region.

Global Expansion and Singapore’s Role

Paulo: And speaking of going global, you’re a company that started in Singapore and has slowly expanded from Singapore to Southeast Asia Pacific, and now you’re really a global company. What has been the value of starting from Singapore, especially as a FinTech company that has raised funding and is now going global or is already global?

Andrea: Singapore is a very good place in the context of being a global hub for FinTech startups and FinTech founders. The first thing that comes to mind—and at least Singapore’s very strong point—is regulatory stability. For anybody living in Singapore day to day, it might seem obvious and natural, right? Having, for example, a stable currency that doesn’t fluctuate radically, or the idea of being able to move money in and out without capital controls.

But at the same time, these things are rare in a global context. And for a FinTech company, these things are very important because they create the opportunity to build a foundation on which to then scale. The second thing I would call is something around a connected ecosystem—the idea that Singapore plays a really global role in the way it designs policies. If you think about government policies and projects, for example, the country’s ability to clear more than 15 currencies and connect all the main financial institutions, or projects to interconnect payment systems such as Nexus, which has been a project that the central bank has been championing. Or if you think of the Singapore FinTech Festival, for example, bringing together a lot of different players globally—that’s very powerful.

The third thing is related to FinTech talent. When we started, I would say there definitely wasn’t that much there. But as we’ve progressed over the years to where we are now, we can definitely see the environment becoming more mature. The more FinTech founders and companies grow beyond a certain stage, the more the ecosystem grows and the more talent comes. It’s a good flywheel effect.

Insights on Exits and Market Landscape

Paulo: I also wanted to zoom out a little bit. Previously, before founding Aspire, when you first came to Southeast Asia, you were part of Lazada. Notably, Lazada is one of those companies that had a pretty remarkable exit and set a standard for how we look at exits in the region. How has your view coming from there and now starting Aspire shaped your view of exits, and how does that inform the way you’re building the company?

Andrea: Yeah, Lazada was definitely a good outcome in terms of exit. The current landscape, I would say, is not necessarily the brightest in terms of the past few years. We’ve seen public markets outside China and India not being super active. Usually you hear about Australia, you hear a bit about Hong Kong recently, but definitely nothing very mature, especially for tech exits or tech capital markets development. And like every founder, I’m typically thinking of either public markets or M&A, and even M&A again hasn’t been the brightest environment.

But if you go back to the root cause, right, I don’t think there are no opportunities to exit or no opportunity for public exits. On the contrary, I think there are companies that are scouting the market more and more. There’s capital ready to be deployed, and the exchanges are gaining more traction. Even Singapore itself is putting in place pretty powerful things to be ready. But again, if you go back to the fundamentals of business, obviously, how many companies have the right growth, marginality, profitability parameters to be captured by this exit market? That’s a bit of a question.

The way we thought about it on our side is basically a twist to the typical guideline of “okay, build what people want.” We are from Y Combinator, and they are very clear on this—and we are also very clear on—building what people want. We work very closely with clients themselves. But we also need to make sure that the business we build is viable. So we need to put together two charts that intersect. For us, we’ve been very focused on not losing sight of the second aspect, especially in Asia Pacific markets where maybe you find a great solution and then realize later that willingness to pay is not so high and ability to monetize is not so high.

So it’s very important to keep that in mind. An example for us has been focusing on private limited companies instead of sole proprietors. Does a problem exist in the market for improving business financial management for sole proprietorships? For sure, yes. So we could build that—people want it. But then the second question is: does it lead to economics, marginality, and profitability that is sustainable? Not clear. And so that’s a bit the way we connect the dots between capital markets and building our product.

Paulo: No, that’s a great heuristic. I think for many years, people think that there’s some kind of causation, but it’s not as strong as people might think. Very two different aspects to building a business.

Leadership and Management Style

Paulo: And speaking of trying to figure that out in a global context, I wanted to ask about your leadership style. Obviously, you’re operating out of different countries—not just Singapore but also Hong Kong and other markets. How have you approached managing all these different teams across different localities, and how have you developed that style over the last seven or eight years?

Andrea: It’s still developing. I would like to say I know, but it’s very much a learning journey for me. A couple of things are becoming more important than they used to be, and potentially this will be shaped by our next chapter. One thing is to do very strong local hiring, right? Multi-market products and companies require the ability to have people on the ground that handle matters that are geographically localized. 

When we look at that more and more, we are looking for profiles that are obviously connected with that ecosystem, but we also need to have proof that there is experience or willingness to work for a multi-market company because it’s very different. It’s not just a company that operates in one market. You need to be able to handle metrics, structures, and OKR setting that happens across different teams in different geographies and different time zones. So it’s very important that the person understands that.

There is a topic we call “the central core but local localized modules” that is very important. When we design products, we design processes, we make sure that they are very solid centrally but customizable. So you always need a component that you say, okay, you handle this right, but it’s not in isolation. It’s connected with something else, like a puzzle. And it’s quite important.

The other thing, which is probably something we’ve brought along, is iteration and learning rather than setting something in stone and keeping it flat and stable, because that’s not how it works.

Paulo: Still keeping that kind of startup mindset—very iterative in the way you approach the design of the structure.

Andrea: Very iterative in the way we approach the design of the structure, the way we develop the phase of a new country or a new product.

Working with Founders and Future Outlook

Paulo: I also wanted to know, since you’ve built a product that really helps a lot of founders—and I think that’s really part of how Aspire has helped the ecosystem and part of its branding as well—what have you learned from working with a lot of these founders? Especially over the last few years, I would think that the way founders think has evolved and changed as well. What are your observations over the years when it comes to working with founders?

Andrea: So a lot of our founders—back to your question—are also companies that are generally international. They’re generally digital for sure, but also international. For me, what has been pretty interesting is to understand what it means to be a founder or a company that starts multi-market first. What are the advantages, right? What are the ways to use these advantages to create a competitive advantage that is lasting?

There is definitely the angle of the ability to have global capabilities built natively, right? You are born with those capabilities. You are born with the ability to operate, for example, teams in multi-location to end services that cater for people that are, for example, moving across borders, taxation. Now there are a lot of tariffs and things between countries. The topic of multi-entity management, the topic of multicurrency cross-border product suites—and that plays quite a strong component in our position. That’s what we are somehow known for compared to a traditional more local provider.

Excitement for International Day

Paulo: So what are you looking forward to for International Day this October? It’s your first time going to this particular event, and there’ll be a lot of different founders from all across the world. Yeah, what are you excited about?

Andrea: So I’m very excited to be able to share our journey and our story, exchange notes also from other people that are sitting in the same spot, right? And also use it as an opportunity to connect with founders and investors that are, like us, trying to connect the dots in this kind of global ecosystem. I’m very excited to be there.

Part 2: Floor Talk at the New York Stock Exchange for International Day 2025

Kristen: We’re down here on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for International Day, speaking to all sorts of leaders from around the world on how to fuel future growth. I’m pleased to now be joined by one of the key attendees and of course a leader in his own right. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Aspire, Andrea Baronchelli. Andrea, welcome.

Andrea: Thanks for having me.

Kristen: Great to have you here at the Stock Exchange today. How are you finding International Day so far?

Andrea: It’s a very exciting day. Great to meet other international entrepreneurs, founders, and investors, to learn from each other, right in this global building journey. Especially in this very interesting and exciting location.

Core Competitive Advantage

Kristen: Yeah, it is an incredible location and a great backdrop for this particular event. I want to learn more about your company Aspire and the core competitive advantage that it has that allows you to win locally and pursue your goals globally.

Andrea: So for us, it’s very important to build across two very different building models. The first is banking—imagine financial services, which has been around forever. It’s typically a very local, default local industry. And the second piece is ERP software, right? This is much more recent, has been around since software was built, in the last few decades. Our competitive advantage is in putting these two very different cores together and offering them to our client base, which are international, digital businesses with a lot of global nexus, allowing them to manage back-office finance workflows end to end, right?

And nowadays, AI is a very important component of building workflows and user journeys. We plug it right in so that we can save a lot of money and time and simplify processes for our clients.

The All-in-One Financial OS Thesis

Kristen: Of course, you’ve built your business on a thesis of combining a multi-currency business banking platform with a business ERP for what you call an all-in-one financial OS. How has that thesis panned out?

Andrea: It’s going very well for us. And again, playing at the intersection of these two different industries creates a very unique competitive advantage and value proposition. We’ve been very lucky to have more than 50,000 international companies using us every day to run their finances. We have seen a lot of growth in some of our newer jurisdictions, right? Growing even more than three times year over year. And so we believe that this is one of the most exciting things happening in B2B finance, and we are very excited to continue to build in this space.

Path to Profitability

Kristen: Yeah, I want to hone in on profitability. How has building a global business from Asia shaped Aspire’s approach to the path to profitability?

Andrea: So it’s a very interesting question, and for us, it’s a very important question as well. We try to put together the usual main angle of building a startup, which is around following your client—building what clients love, right? So that they’re going to use you more and recommend you to their communities, right? And so this is very important for us. We built a company with that angle. But also, given that we started in Asia, and in Asia not every client is willing to pay for services, we also learned that there is another important aspect that we need to keep in mind a lot, which is: whatever decision and product we build, is it making good business, right?

And this is something that you hear much less in the circles of startups, for example in the United States. For us, it’s been very important to put these two together to create both value for the clients but also a good business model that creates profitability, makes the company sustainable, and allows it to grow sustainably.

Market Strategy and Expansion

Kristen: Yeah, and what is your strategy for deepening your presence in existing markets while pursuing global growth opportunities too?

Andrea: Yes, so it’s very important for us to think about it in terms of first of all a portfolio. So we have jurisdictions and markets where we are already established, and then there are markets that are starting off or maturing. For us, the first principle is that we need to pick these and manage them in parallel, right? We cannot manage new markets sequentially because we are in a regulated business, and it will take too long to build an international business. And so that’s the first principle that we typically use.

The second principle is about planning and having patience, right? We are in FinTech, and we have stages to develop a product that we cannot really shorten too much. We have time to get a new license. We have time to integrate with financial infrastructure. We have time to build compliance programs. And so it’s important to plan and follow through.

And the third thing for us is about finding a way to combine scalability, right? We build across apps and create value from new markets to the existing client base that we have. And that’s what we do.

Resource Allocation and Risk Management

Kristen: How do you approach resource allocation and risk management when it comes to building your business?

Andrea: So it’s a very good question, especially true for a startup, right, that doesn’t have unlimited resources. And so we think about it in terms of three main types of teams that do different things around the organization, each supporting each other. So the first is some teams that are supporting the core services for the company. These are teams that serve the rest of the business, and it’s around typically legal services, for example, technology services.

The second part is existing business units, right? These are the existing businesses that make money. These are the ones paying the bills for everybody else. And then there are bets—these are very new, either geographies or products or segments that we want to develop in the future. They’re very small. These are small teams that create a lot of novelty and innovation, and we allocate resources one-third each, and we try to balance right across these resources and teams.

Next Stage of Growth

Kristen: What do you see as the next stage of growth for Aspire?

Andrea: So for us, it’s about two things. One is additional ERP modules that are going to be plugged on top of our infrastructure, and they create a lot of, again, end-to-end workflows that simplify the lives of finance teams and CFOs, treasurers, and accountants. And the second thing is more geographies, so that we build and connect more international apps into our proposition so that we can cater to and serve better our international global clients.

Closing Remarks

Kristen: Any takeaways that you’d like to leave International Day with here at the New York Stock Exchange?

Andrea: For me, it has been very humbling to connect with individuals that are building businesses all over the world and still gather here in this very iconic pinnacle of business globally to exchange thoughts. And so thanks so much for having us.

NYSE: Thank you so much for joining us here on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.