SIMON LOONG
FOUNDER AND GROUP CEO, WELAB
Simon Loong wants you to achieve your dreams. At least, he believes that nobody’s pursuit of a dream should be stymied because of a lack of access to funding. In 2013, Loong co-founded fintech company Welab, with the goal of using technology to solve the issue of financial inclusion. The only homegrown company to have been granted a virtual banking licence in Hong Kong in 2019, it has over 50 million customers across the city, mainland China and Indonesia, as well as more than 700 enterprise customers. Loong believes that with technology, everyone should be able to access financial services, regardless of their family background or income.
“Financial freedom improves people’s lives. So we need to help people to get access—cheap, efficient access—to financial services,” he says. “What is stopping people from getting it right now is the cost. For example, if you live in a remote area, there is cost as you need to travel somewhere. In Hong Kong’s case, the cost to serve a customer [due to rent and staff salaries] is so high, so traditional banks always target high-net-worth individuals. But if the cost to provide fair and efficient financial services is zero, then anyone can get it ... and technology can be the solution to that.”
While fintech came relatively late to Hong Kong— Loong describes the city as being “a victim of its own success” because it was a thriving international financial market for so long—covid-19 has in many ways been a boon for its development. As Loong puts it, this year “is probably the moment in our history where the largest population of human beings are being pushed out of their comfort zone. You have to change the way you interact, the way you work, the way you behave. Because of the pandemic, there has been acceleration of online financial services adoption, meaning people are really adopting fintech just like everyone started ordering food online.” Welab’s volume of loans disbursement, for example, doubled from September 2020 to September this year.
Other plans in the pipeline involve a wealth management product co-developed with Allianz Global Investors, as well as some patents for products designed to protect data privacy, which Loong believes is often overlooked. While not everything he has touched has turned to virtual gold, Loong says rejection is “the natural byproduct of aiming high. In fact, if you are getting ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes’ along the way, that means you’re not aiming high enough. Maybe I should accept the fact that I should get used to being rejected, because that means I’m doing something right.”
As for the legacy he hopes he and Welab will leave? “Impact. The impact of how the technology of better financial services can improve people’s lives on a large scale. We want everyone to be able to improve their lives, to achieve their aspirations, to achieve their dreams.”