Aspire's determination to make it easier for companies to manage finances

It is no secret that companies are still faced with complicated financial management challenges, such as limited access to corporate credit cards and inefficient financial procedures. Not surprisingly, appropriate solutions are needed so that financial literacy in the corporate realm also grows no less than in society in general.

Based in Singapore, startup fintech Aspire trying to solve these challenges through for mobile devices to report the finance to make it easier for companies to manage business operational finance. The solution all-in-one covers virtual business account, spend management, corporate card, receivable and payable management, local and international money transfers, and the latest payment gateway.

"There are three issues that we want to solve to help the team Finance. Person Finance it's most afraid if you don't have control, visibility to cash flowit, and can't set it cash flow well. We give for mobile devices to report the to solve these three issues that can be accessed online real-time," explained General Manager of Aspire Indonesia Ferdy Nandes to DailySocial.id.

Each of the products above solves various problems that are often faced by the finance team every month, especially when closing books. Example, spend management the product flagship the company allows the team Finance can do budgeting for every expenditure control tool, whether for spending digital advertising, projects, and so on.

When budget If the ad has reached up to 80% of costs, a notification will appear sent to budget owner. "For projects, then every income and expenditure can betag ke budget owner. With two clicks, you can find out the income and expenses for any project, so the reconciliation process is easier."

Then, for products virtual corporate card can help the team Finance to pay for company operations, whether for budgetmarketing, electricity, claims, and so on. Different from credit cards in general because bank statement Newly issued at the end of every month, this card can be tracked automatically real-time its use.

Other products that are widely used are receivable and payable management. This is invoice which is connected to the Aspire system, so that when a client pays their bill it can be tracked automatically. Even when the client uses accounting software Xero, Netsuite, Quickboo, MYOB, it can automatically link expenses and integrate with Aspire, so clients will always have accurate and well-organized accounting data.

"We also have products cross-border payments. This is often used by startups when they get funding from investors abroad. In 3-5 days they can have USD account, then that's it funding- you can enter -convert [Rupiah exchange rate] according to their needs."

"VisibilityIt's clear, the controls are clear, and it works real-time tracking. This card can also be used to pay claims to employees. Budget owner can monitor directly via the application and the authority can be set as approval final or you can pay the claim at the same time. It all depends on each company's policy [regulatory authority]."

Ferdy said that the company adheres to principles consumer-centric, meaning there is personalization for each country in which they operate. Therefore, there is customization of every product brought from Singapore to other countries. Singapore for example, the regulations there allow a company to directly collaborate with global payment networks Visa and Mastercard in issuing corporate debit/credit cards.

"But in Indonesia, to issue a corporate credit card the rules must go through a bank. Currently we have collaborated with Bank CIMB Niaga to corporate virtual cards. The product is the same but the approach is different, so we always follow the rules that apply in each country."

Product expansion

Aspire's business scope is not only in Singapore, but has entered Indonesia a year after it was first established in 2018. Not only that, other Asian countries have also been expanded, such as Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong which was only inaugurated two months ago . The total number of Aspire employees in the region reaches 500 people, 118 of whom are employees in Indonesia, 200 employees in Singapore, 100 employees engineer specifically in India, and the rest are spread across other countries.

"Based on contribution revenue, Indonesia is in second place after Singapore. "The team is also the second largest, this shows that we are very serious about working on this market for the past 18 months."

The appointment of Ferdy as General Manager 10 months ago shows Aspire's seriousness in gaining market share in this country. Before joining, Ferdy had experience in various global technology companies including LinkedIn, Skyscanner, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Xero.

About 35% of Aspire users come from startups and the rest are MSMEs. These startups come from various business verticals: e-commerce, fintech, retail, up to food and beverages (F&B). The company names include Schoters, eFishery, Brick, Ayoconnect, Pinhome, Base and Haus!.

In order to develop business solutions and reach more companies from medium to large scale businesses, Aspire recently introduced a payment gateway service (payment gateway). "With payment gateway Currently, Aspire's solutions are from upstream to downstream, starting from managing finances to receiving money from end-consumer."

Not only that, the company is studying the needs of companies with a higher business scale, considering that the solutions needed are more complex because there are thousands of employees. "If there are only 1000-2000 employees for claims, the process will definitely take longer approvalso it requires customization. This is what we are studying to better understand why we are consumer centric."

The business model used by Aspire is subscription. However, users can adjust their subscription flexibly according to the product they use. According to Ferdy, this method was able to bring the company to a profitable position from May 2023. The profit was achieved after Aspire managed to triple its revenue in the past year. Aspire also claims that the total volume of funds processing in the last year reached $15 billion.

"Because even though we are Saas, we always look at what consumers need, then we can customize [the payment] is according to need and purchasing power they. We try to be flexible and try to use clients for mobile devices to report the this is because after pricing, the next most important key is whether they really need it or not."

This achievement gives the company the confidence to replicate its success in other Asian countries. Although it cannot be detailed further, the company plans to expand throughout this year. The last country to be invaded was Hong Kong two months ago.

Apart from focusing on developing the business, the company also focuses on educating its users in the field. According to Ferdy, his party has found that digital literacy for companies is not running as fast as compared to the final level of society. Even though the company is also staffed by the same people and is also exposed to the latest technological developments.

"This doesn't just happen at Aspire, but at startups in general too. So that we are not left behind by other countries, company adaptation must also be faster. This is unique in how we can improve. Many of our human resources are not tenacious enough to learn new things, even though they have potential we are big," concluded Ferdy.