Technology is Southeast Asia 500accounting for less than 3% of the total revenue of the list. SEA has only one Internet Company in the top 20, while four such companies are in the top 20 in the Fortune 500.
However, the region’s most famous internet platforms have improved their rankings this year. oceanNo. 15, the Southeast Asia 500 rose five positions this year, increasing its revenue by nearly 30% to $16.8 billion.
Singapore’s catch It also rose 24 places to rank 128th on the list this year with revenue of $2.8 billion. and other ride platforms GotoHeadquartered in Indonesia, it has increased by 13 attractions and sales of US$1 billion.
All three platforms can cite a specific business to help drive recent success: financial services. None of these companies are real fintech companies. SEA focuses on gaming and e-commerce, while Grab and Goto starts with rides and delivery. However, financial services have proven to be a direct and potentially profitable for tech companies in the region.
Financial services are part of the SEA business, but are growing rapidly. Ocean’s Digital Financial Services Department, Recent name change For Monee, it grew nearly 35% last year to $2.4 billion. Sea’s momentum extends into 2025. Moni’s revenue rose 57.6% year-on-year to $787.1 million in the first quarter.
As of March 31, 2025, the outstanding amount of consumer and loan principal was US$5.8 billion, an increase of 76.5% over the same period last year.
Monee launched an electronic cargo in 2014 and has since expanded to services such as credit, banking and Insurtech. Most of SEA’s digital financial and operating income are driven by its consumer and small and medium-sized enterprise credit operations.
Sea also owns two digital banks: Maribank, which operates in Singapore, and Seabank, which operates in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Grab’s financial services are also the fastest-growing business of ride-hailing platforms last year, with revenue rising 44% to $253 million. Similarly, this momentum shifted to 2025, with financial services revenue growing 36% year-on-year in the first quarter.
Like Sea, Grab started its financial services business with electronic styles for the first time. The company now provides loans to its driver and businessman partners and expands into the digital banking space through GXS and GX Banks in Singapore and Malaysia, respectively.
As of March 31, 2025, Grab’s total loans reached US$566 million, a 56% increase from the same period in the previous year.
Goto has also built its own financial services app separate from flagship ride-hailing service Gojek. GoPay was launched in 2023 and uses less mobile data than it has to be used through the Gojek app, which makes it easier to access for those with lower-featured phones. Goto also holds a 22% stake in Indonesian digital bank Jago Bank Jago.
Last year, Goto’s financial services sector revenue nearly doubled to 37 trillion Indonesian Indonesia ($230 million).
Why invest in financial services?
Financial services are still smaller businesses that are offshore, grabbing and snapping up compared to their primary services, but for these tech companies it is a natural advancement as they try to serve the population that is still in most of the accounts. Financial services generally have higher gross profit margins than major services in e-commerce or driving.
These clients usually bring greater risks to traditional financial institutions. However, tech platforms believe that user data collected from e-commerce or on-demand services can help create a risk profile that can be used to judge reputableness, allowing them to lend to a portion of the population that traditional banks may not want to use.
Digital banks offer another way to acquire more customers. Grab, Sea or Goto can encourage users to use their e-money services to open a new account through a digital bank. This, in turn, will give these companies more data and eventually start providing other services such as investment and insurance products.
