Financial services firm SBI Holdings has led a $17.5m series B round for Thailand-based payment services provider Omise which also included conglomerate Sinar Mas and e-commerce group Ascend, TechCrunch reported yesterday.
Ascend invested through Ascend Money, its financial division, while Sinar Mas participated through its corporate venturing vehicle, Sinar Mas Digital Ventures. The round also featured venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures.
Founded in 2014, Omise operates a platform that allows merchants to accept credit card payments online. The technology tackles a persistent problem in Southeast Asia, where each of the six countries that make up the region use their own payment system incompatible with the others.
The offering is currently available in Thailand and Japan, but Omise plans to enter Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia in the near future. In the longer term, the company hopes to expand into Vietnam, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines, and into markets further afield such as New Zealand.
Golden Gate Ventures made an investment of undisclosed size in Omise in October 2015. The company previously secured $2.6m in a May 2015 series A round backed by Sinar Mas Digital Ventures, mobile network True (owned by Ascend) and 500 Tuktuks. East Ventures invested $300,000 in 2014.