Investors who enrolled for the Singapore Fintech Festival’s deal-making platform, intend to invest up to $6.2 billion in ASEAN firms in 2019, the Monetary Authority of Singapore says. And that's not all.

A new component in this year’s Festival, MATCH (Meet ASEAN’s Talents and Champions) is a platform that curates and matches promising next-generation ASEAN enterprises with global private equity and venture capital.

More than 17,000 matches were generated between the 380 participating investors and 840 enterprises, the Monetary Auth0rity of Singapore, or MAS, said on Monday. MATCH, powered by Ernst & Young (EY), builds on the success of last year's Investor Summit by expanding the scope of the deal-making platform to sectors beyond fintech.

These investors have indicated intentions to invest up to a total of $6.2 billion in ASEAN enterprises next year, and an additional $6 billion earmarked over the subsequent two years.

Higher Than Demand

Participating investors showed the most interest in startups and growth stage enterprises. Around 60 percdent of the intended ASEAN investment allocation for the next year was concentrated in fintech, healthcare, and medical technology, as well as the information and communications technology sectors. The capital the investors planned to deploy was higher than the demand for financing from participating ASEAN enterprises.

«The 2018 MATCH exercise demonstrates the upward momentum in both the supply of and demand for growth capital in ASEAN. The interest of the global investment community in our region is promising. MATCH presents a great opportunity to ensure that private capital is deployed towards the development of promising ASEAN enterprises,» Jacqueline Loh, Deputy Managing Director, MAS, said.

Facing Challenges

The matchmaking exercise for enterprises and investors was conducted from May to September 2018. To facilitate deal-making, MAS and EY co-hosted the inaugural Deal Day on 5 October 2018 which saw more than 400 curated meetings to introduce enterprises to prospective investors. Beyond DealDay, EY is continuing to connect investors with enterprises that fit their investment profile.

«On the back of fast-growing economies, a digital-savvy young middle-income population and high mobile and internet penetration rates, we see a thriving entrepreneur and startup ecosystem across ASEAN particularly in the technology and fintech sectors. Having said that, many SMEs – fintech and non-fintech continue to face challenges in seeking access to funding or opportunities to connect with the right investors. Participating investors have told us that they found the Deal Day event useful as it helps them to effectively uncover potential startups to invest in,» Max Loh, Managing Partner, EY ASEAN and Singapore, added.

Global Investor Summit

According to further information the 2018 Singapore Fintech Festival will introduce a new component – the Global Investor Summit – which will be held on 13 to 14 November 2018. The Summit is targeted at investors and enterprises, and will feature themes such as capital raising strategies, building businesses across borders, investors’outlook and India, China and ASEAN leaders’dialogues.