Neat snags $2m in funding round

Neat, a Hong Kong-based digital banking startup, announced the closing of a US$2 million (66.4 million baht) funding round from Singapore-based investor Dymon Asia Ventures, and Portag3 Ventures, a Canadian venture capital firm, making its first investment in Asia.

Neat has also launched its “Neat Business” product, an alternative to a traditional corporate bank account for entrepreneurs, startups and corporations.

Neat Business comes after the startup’s personal banking offerings were launched in 2017.

The product is positioned to provide startups and entrepreneurs from around the world options different from or in addition to traditional bank and corporate bank accounts.

“Thanks to our investment partners we can continue addressing issues faced by early-stage and non-traditional businesses when they’re dealing with traditional banks,” said chief executive and co-founder David Rosa.

Neat already has customers in more than 100 countries, with new businesses signing up every 20 minutes. Neat’s customers include online digital businesses in the IT, e-commerce and consulting industries.

Following a beta period for Neat Business, Neat will use the new capital injection to focus on enhanced customer onboarding, new product features and attracting talent to the team.

“Technology has changed how we do business, which means the way business owners want to manage their company finances has changed as well,” said Chris Kaptein, partner at Dymon Asia Ventures.

“We believe Neat understands better than any team we have seen that everything in banking revolves around the customer.”

Neat Business offers a multi-user business account, accompanied by Mastercard debit cards, that provides businesses anywhere in the world with a dedicated Hong Kong bank account number.

It takes about 10 minutes for a company to complete the online registration.

The Neat Business dashboard gives users a simple overview of the state of all finances, and features mechanisms for receiving payments, payroll and expense management.

In addition, Neat customers can make payments to more than 60 countries at the click of a button.

“As an early-stage company or not-forprofit organisation, it’s a challenge to get a bank account. Our first application to a major bank was rejected after six months of waiting,” said Billy Naveed, founder of Young Founders School, an early user of Neat Business who has held an account for four months.

“We were introduced to Neat and had a bank account number and debit cards for the whole team in a week.”