Omise lands $17.5M Series B to expand its Stripe-like service in Southeast Asia Omise a Bangkok-based payment enabler much like Stripe has raised a $17.5 million Series Bround to expand its reachacross Southeast Asia. The company proves a payment gateway system that allowsany retailer take credit card payments online. Thats long been a problem in Southeast Asia which is compromised of six majorcountries each of which requires a different payment solution Omise is trying to offer a one-stop shop. Right now its service is available in Thailand and Japan (the birthplace of CEO Jun Hasegawa) but there are plans to expand to Indonesia Singapore and Malaysia where it has carried out closed testing in the coming months. Beyond that Omise is looking at reachingVietnam the Philippines and Mekong countries like Burma Laos and Cambodia at a later date. This new round which is one of the largest for a fintech company in Southeast Asia to date was led by Japan-based SBI Investment with participation from Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV) in Indonesia Thailands Ascend Money (affiliated with mobile operator True) and existing backer Golden Gate Ventures. Omise has now raised over $25 million includinga $2.6 million Series A in May 2015and undisclosed roundfrom Golden Gate Ventureslast October right after the Singapore-based VC firm announced a new $50 million fund. Omise which is pronounced Oh-Mee-Say and means store in Japanese was founded in 2014 by Hasegawa and Thailand-bornCOO Ezra Donnie Harinsut who became friends after meeting on a homestay trip. The startup is focused on tapping the potential of e-commerce in Southeast Asia. Right now estimates suggest less than five percent of the retail in the region is done online but with more than 600 million people in the region and an increasingly affluent middle class theres a huge opportunity for growth. Thats one reason Alibaba made a $1 billion investment in Rocket Internet-backed Amazon clone Lazada earlier this year while a recent Google report forecast Southeast Asias online economy will reach $200 billion per year within a decade.Omise wants to be the payment solution of choice for anyone selling online across the region. There are manyrivals including 2C2P which raised $7 million last yearand is powering a social commerce trialwith Facebook.Stripe meanwhile is in the region but it appears to be working on creating demand in the U.S. from overseas via its Atlas project rather than going for a full-on localization approach. Unlike its local competitors Omise is solely focused on digital payments and not cash which counts for around 60 percent of payments online right now in Southeast Asia.Harinsut explained that Omise sees cash-less as the future and it aims to be faster and better than other solutions which take multiple days for payout and involve manual processes. Werefocusing more on pay out solutions not only about accepting payments but also paying merchants or vendors. It iscurrently next day [payment to merchants] but we want instant we automate everything batch files and submit to bank theres no human involvement in the process. We try to reduce human error time and fees he told TechCrunch in an interview. E-commerce is the most visible opportunity but Hasegawa said that Omise is focusing more broardly on online retail beyond startups thats one reason it has operations in Japan because many Japanese retailers are moving into Southeast Asia. E-commerce is growing but much [of our business] is from big companies he told me. Small startups arent really making progress yet. It is up tous to make it a self-sustainable business focusing really on enterprises like airlines insurance companies mobile network operators and other subscription services like BDO-on-demand e-retail and e-government. Thats our target segment right now. Omise isnt releasing any figures for its business we did ask butHarinsut said the company can reach profitability inside the the next year. He explained that the challenge is about reachng suitable scale.Omise makes its money by charging3.65 percent on transactions with a one dollar fee for up to 60000 (1 million THB) withdrawn but it offersflexible packages for largercustomer. Southeast Asia is the first priority but the startups founders are also looking outside of their immediate geography including Australia New Zealand Korea and Hong Kong for future opportunities. Were also really interested in India Hasegawa told me. Itssuch a big market and there is still a huge gap for e-commerce and financial institutions. Ibelieve they have some space. The company has also been bulking up on personnel too lately. June Seah (formerly Visa APAC) and Michael Bradley (ex CyberSource a Visa company) have joined the Omise advisory board. Bradley has also becomeOmises Chief Commercial Officer alongside two more new hires:Sanjeev Kumar also formerlywithVisa CyberSourcewhohas becomeChief Product Officer and Luke Cheng ex Groupon APAC who isOmiseChief Financial Officer. Lets block ads! (Why?) – Repost from: techcrunch Post – you can download ImmedTech app for android from link : bit.ly/ITapp-v1512
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