MatchMove bags Shopmatic in $200-million deal to build fintech dynamo

MatchMove has acquired Shopmatic in a US$200-million deal, that would combine the two Singapore-based firms into an end-to-end embedded finance and e-commerce powerhouse.

MatchMove’s platform promises customisable, fast, secure and regulated embedded financial services, such as banking-in-an-app, powered by APIs, to help enterprise firms offer richer services to their SME customers. 

Shopmatic offers small businesses an e-commerce presence, complete with chat, social media, a webstore and automated access to the world’s largest e-marketplaces.

The combined company will enable MatchMove to provide its Banking-as-a-Service capabilities to Shopmatic’s ecosystem of over a million e-commerce SME customers. 

This deal is the first in a series of planned acquisitions for MatchMove to create an end-to-end service for companies in Southeast Asia aiming to digitalise their offerings.

MatchMove has grown its presence rapidly across Southeast Asia in recent times and has customers across Singapore, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam.

The combined entity will operate under the MatchMove Group name, while retaining their individual customer-facing brands for the immediate period. 

Shopmatic CEO, Anurag Avula, will continue to lead the Shopmatic business while Shailesh Naik, MatchMove CEO, will helm the group as it seeks to add further complementary acquisitions to its stable of SaaS infrastructure solutions.

Naik said the acquisition provides a large user base to deploy their financial services, reaching a huge sector of the economy at scale.

“Enterprise customers can now completely digitalise their supply chains — providing services like supply chain lending and vendor payments through a single platform to Shopmatic’s ecosystem of SME customers,” said Naik.

Avula said they are building a scalable, business-friendly platform-as-a-service with intelligent tools and data, so every business has the ability to create amazing products to address their markets and while addressing the challenges of moving digital money securely.

MatchMove plans to provide modular services, so customers can select and tailor the digital services they need to deliver their commercial objectives.

In addition to their existing e-commerce services, Shopmatic merchants will now be able to access embedded banking-as-a-service through MatchMove, enabling their buyers to make and collect payments seamlessly and at a lower cost.

MatchMove provides enterprise customers with a set of customisable APIs which can be integrated into their app to offer own-brand digital wallets, in addition to both virtual and physical cards through Visa, Mastercard and WePay.

The platform comes with a virtual account, ensuring they receive their daily sales funds. This solution also helps Shopmatic and its merchants improve their receivables and reduce their cost of managing payments.