Turochas “T” Fuad
Turochas “T” Fuad, a veteran entrepreneur and founder of co-working space provider Spacemob (acquired by WeWork in 2017), has launched a new venture in the fast-growing buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) space.
Named ‘Pace Enterprise’, the fintech startup aims to bring in financial access and inclusion by facilitating extended buying limits to underserved segments in the Asia Pacific region.
Headquartered in Singapore, Pace is also available in Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong.
Additionally, the BNPL startup announced it has raised a “high seven-figure seed round” co-led by Vertex Ventures and Alpha JWC.
The capital will be used to further develop its platform and offer progressive services and solutions to consumers and merchants.
Also Read: How hoolah aims to tackle the misconceptions of Buy Now Pay Later
Using a bespoke financial profiling algorithm, Pace matches customers with appropriate spending limits that allow them to split their purchases over three interest-free instalments.
As the adoption for its BNPL solution grows, Pace plans to leverage those insights and unique buying patterns to offer the right fintech solutions to a developing digital banking ecosystem.
“The reason we launched Pace — and our long-term goal — is to create a broader and more inclusive digital fintech platform that empowers underserved populations. To achieve this, BNPL is the right first step that flexibly and seamlessly extends customers’ buying limits while giving merchants access to financing alternatives and entirely new customers segments,” said Founder and CEO Fuad.
“Pace has a clear and bold vision to create an inclusive and accessible ecosystem. With a strong founding team that has worked together for over 10 years and has a proven track record in building successful ventures, Pace is already transforming the fintech space,” said Kee Lock Chua, Managing Partner, Vertex Ventures SEA & India.
Since rolling out its BNPL offering in November 2020, Pace claims to have rapidly added over 300 points-of-sale from over 200 merchant partners, including Goldheart, OSIM, Sincere Watch, Carousell, Reebonz, and FJ Benjamin. Since implementing Pace’s easy-to-use and unique solution, merchants are already reporting greater reach and higher sales.
With Pace, businesses of all sizes can easily activate and offer BNPL payment options to their customers, including debit cardholders. This, it claims, enables greater reach and higher sales through sustainable spending.
As part of a BNPL pilot programme in Singapore, Pace has signed a partnership that enables specially curated Carousell merchants to offer Pace’s BNPL payment option to their customers.
The company aims to reach 5,000 merchant partners by the end of 2021 through its geographical expansion into North Asia and the rest of Southeast Asia.
The BNPL industry in Asia has witnessed massive growth over the past year with the change in consumer behaviour following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Singapore itself, there are a few startups, which include Rely and Hoolah.
Rely is probably the pioneer in the segment, which in December last year secured US$74.8 million credit facility from Polaris, the strategic partnerships arm of Singapore-based Goldbell Financial Services. Hoolah, which is also making inroads into the market, raised an 8-figure sum in Series A round, led by Allectus Capital, in March last year.
A well-known face in Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem, Fuad has successfully launched and sold three startups thus far. His first startup was WUF Networks, an Internet of things software company based out of Silicon Valley. The company was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005.
Also Read: Buy now, pay later: The changing face of finance for a mobile generation
Fuad was also CEO and founder of travelmob, an online marketplace for vacation rentals. Headquartered in Singapore, travelmob was acquired by HomeAway (now part of Expedia) in mid-2013.
He established and ran Spacemob in 2016. He was appointed as Managing Director of WeWork Southeast Asia and Korea after the Spacemob acquisition.
In between his startups, Fuad was Managing Director for Skype Asia Pacific, responsible for its business expansion across Japan, China, Australia, Taiwan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia.
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Image Credit: Pace
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