(L-R) Aspire Co-Founders Andrea Baronchelli and Giovanni Casinelli
Five months after announcing the closing of its US$100M Series C investment round, Aspire, which provides an all-in-one finance operating system (OS) for businesses, has turned profitable.
The Singapore-headquartered company offers corporate cards, multi-currency business accounts, FX payments, and payroll and expense management to over 15,000 businesses, including 5,000 in Indonesia.
In the past 12 months, Aspire claims it tripled its yearly revenues, hitting profitability in Q2 2023 and US$15B of annualised total payment volumes.
e27 spoke with Aspire Co-Founder and CEO Andrea Baronchelli to understand how the company made the achievement amidst an unfavourable business climate.
Excerpts:
This achievement comes when most companies are struggling to stay afloat and laying off employees to cut costs etc. How has Aspire managed to achieve profitability despite this? Did you accelerate the plans to achieve profitability because of the current slowdown?
We have been charting this path for the past 24 months, developing more efficient go-to-market approaches, forging strong partnerships and working relentlessly on our unit economics.
What sets us apart is our razor focus on the mission, which leads us to be highly deliberate with every product or feature we decide to invest in, listening to our customers, and adapting quickly to the macro-environment shifts.
We are also very intentional in building one of the most talented fintech teams in the region, as we need to put great talent together to build an enduring company.
What is next for Aspire? Are there any plans to expand its services to more countries or regions shortly?
We plan to continue building a highly talented team, which is at the core of our growth philosophy and invest in technology and expansion across Southeast Asia and the broader Asia Pacific.
What is your advice for startups struggling in terms of capital management? Can you give them some tips?
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- Every dollar counts: Make sure you’re keeping tabs on hidden costs like unnecessary subscription spend. Ensure you have visibility so know what you have and are paying for.
- Have a strong system in place to enforce budgets and approval processes and create a culture of cost-consciousness empowered by technology.
- Start early building a solid financial foundation while your team is small will help you immensely when you scale.
Could you share any success stories or case studies of SMEs benefiting from Aspire’s services?
Verz Design struggled with a lack of real-time visibility over their budgeting as they scaled. Using Aspire’s expense management software, this digital marketing agency could streamline its budgeting and forecasting processes and distribute spending decisions and procurement across the organisation.
Also Read: Finance OS for SMEs Aspire scores US$100M, claims US$12B annualised payment volume
With real-time tracking, cost-savings and automation of manual processes, the Verz team could reinvest that time and money into scaling their business and serving their clients.
Multiplier, a global employment platform with 200+ employees regionally, lacked centralised spending visibility and struggled to implement budget controls. After it started to use Aspire’s expense management solution, it issued as many corporate cards as it wanted with full visibility of all expenses in real time. It can now generate expense reports without waiting until the month’s end. It also implemented full budget controls and merchant locks, helping to adhere to planned budgets and get peace of mind. With Aspire’s solution, Multipliers saves approximately 760 hours and US$73,000 annually.
Endowus needed a business finance partner to support it through its rapid expansion through multiple markets. With more cross-border transactions, expense processing and marketing spending expected due to this expansion, Endowus needed an all-in-one business account tailored to its cost-saving needs.
Today, it manages employee spending and all other business finance needs on one platform (Aspire’s business account), with cost-savings through Aspire cards and time-saving through our various integrations and automation. With Aspire’s solution, Endowus saves approximately 900 hours and US$110,000 annually.
What future developments or enhancements can we expect from Aspire?
We will continue to invest in our product to enhance our offerings further to cater to our growing customers’ needs.
We plan to roll out highly-requested features in the coming months across our Business Account and Spend Management plans, including increased payment capabilities and local rail coverage, advanced software features, and enhanced integrations with partners.
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