{"id":342029,"date":"2017-05-26T16:39:52","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T08:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1496305"},"modified":"2017-05-26T16:39:52","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T08:39:52","slug":"payment-firm-soft-space-raises-5m-to-expand-in-southeast-asia-and-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/payment-firm-soft-space-raises-5m-to-expand-in-southeast-asia-and-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Payment firm Soft Space raises $5M to expand in Southeast Asia and Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Soft Space, a payment provider in Southeast Asia, has close its\u00a0$5 million Series A\u00a0as it looks to expand across the region, and potentially into Japan.<\/p>\n

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based Soft Space works with large enterprise customers, typically banks, to offer customized solutions for mobile payment, both at point-of-sale and other parts of the process. Typically these solutions are white-labeled. The startup\u00a0currently active in its home market, Thailand, Indonesia and Taiwan. This new investment is provided entirely\u00a0by Transcosmos, a Japanese firm that specializes in business and expansion which works with chat app Line<\/a>\u00a0among others.<\/p>\n

Beyond providing capital, the deal is strategic for both parties, Soft Space chief strategy officer\u00a0Chris Leong told TechCrunch. With the backing of Transcosmos and existing partners such as\u00a0Sumitomo Mitsui Card Corporation \u2014 which invested in Square and Stripe to help them expand to Japan \u2014 Soft Space is assessing the potential to move\u00a0into Japan. It is also working closely with Japanese firms that are eying the market in Southeast Asia to help them expand and adapt to local payment behaviors.<\/p>\n

\u201cJapanese companies are really coming into Southeast Asia\u00a0as the next phase of growth,\u201d Leong said.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the internet economy in the region is tipped to grow to be worth $200 billion annually within the next decade, according to a report authored by Google<\/a>.\u00a0Indonesia, Southeast Asia\u2019s\u00a0largest economy and highest population, is a particular expansion focus and Leong said that Soft Space \u201cwants to do more\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n

The company, which currently has 76 employees across three offices, isn\u2019t going to go crazy on the hiring front, Leong said, but it is looking into acquiring requisite financial licenses across its core markets: Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. That would allow it to operate independently, whereas currently it must work with local partners.<\/p>\n

Leong added that the company recorded take-home revenues of 27.8 million MYR ($6.5 million) over the last year. While it has reached break-even already, he\u00a0said that profitability isn\u2019t an immediate focus \u2014 instead the priority is scale and development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Soft Space, a payment provider in Southeast Asia, has close its\u00a0$5 million Series A\u00a0as it looks to expand across the region, and potentially into Japan.
\nKuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based Soft Space works with large enterprise customers, typically banks, to offer customized solutions for mobile payment, both at point-of-sale and other parts of the process. Typically these solutions are white-labeled. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-342029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}