Fintech-as-a-service company DigiAsia Bios to go public via SPAC deal

StoneBridge Acquisition, an American special purposes acquisition company (SPAC), and DigiAsia Bios, an Indonesian embeddable ‘fintech-as-a-service’ (FaaS) company, have agreed to combine their businesses to form a new entity at a pre-money equity valuation of $500 million.

Post-closing, the combined entity will be named DigiAsia and will trade on The Nasdaq Stock Market, with plans to expand to a total addressable market (TAM) of $245 billion.

DigiAsia offers fintech-as-a-service across digital wallets, banking-as-a-service (BaaS), utility bill payments, remittances, supply chain payments, and working capital loans.

The company’s partners include Mastercard, Western Union, Starbucks, Garuda Indonesia, Bukalapak, KaiPay, eFishery, Semen Indonesia, and Home Credit.

Prashant Gokarn — DigiAsia Bios Co-CEO said: “DigiAsia’s vision is to be an active part of the digital revolution of Indonesia by enabling financial services – lending, payments, remittances and mass low cost banking – to all individuals and businesses, irrespective of their size or socioeconomic status. We are also very proud to be working with Mastercard  to build on our existing offering in order to increase financial inclusion in Indonesia.”

On completion of the transaction, DigiAsia anticipates having access to around $200 million in net cash to fund the company’s growth plans.

In addition, DigiAsia’s existing stockholder including Mastercard and Reliance Capital Management will roll over 100% of their equity into the combined entity.

Prabhu Antony — Stonebridge President and CFO said: “Indonesia has a credit card penetration of less than 4% and more than half of the population remains unbanked.

“DigiAsia is best positioned to capitalize on this large TAM.

“Also, sustainable take rates resulting in solid unit economics and strong long term gross margins at over 50%, make it a highly profitable business model.”

Apart from a $100 million equity investment commitment from Yorkville Advisors Global, DigiAsia has also partnered with DBS Bank to disburse loans through its KreditPro platform.

The transaction is anticipated to complete during the second quarter of 2023, subject to certain customary closing conditions.

Earlier, DigiAsia secured a $14.5 million investment at a $450 million post-money valuation led by Reliance Capital Management.

Established in 2017, DigiAsia Bios operates with four licenses to serve Digital Payment (KasPro), Remittances (RemitPro), P2P Lending (KreditPro), and Digital Financial Services (Digibos).