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Aspire

“Can a Southeast Asian SME finance platform become the global multi-jurisdictional financial OS for cross-border businesses?”

Founded2018
HQSingapore
FoundersAndrea Baronchelli
Total raised$200M+ (disclosed)
Latest roundSeries C, 2023
IndustryFintech / SMB banking
The story

Founded 2018 in Singapore as a finance platform for SMEs in Southeast Asia, Aspire built a multi-currency account + corporate card + spend management stack on top of safeguarded Tier-1 bank accounts (DBS, Citi, JPMorgan). After the 2023 Series C, it pursued global licensing — AFSL in Australia, EMI in EU, and US entry via Column N.A. as sponsor bank — moving from regional SME challenger to a multi-jurisdictional financial OS. The recent launch of AspireOS positions the company as an embedded-finance infrastructure provider for banks and platforms, layering API-based banking, cards, and payouts on top of its own regulated rails.

Last 12 months
2025-12
2025-11
Product timeline
2018
Founded in Singapore by Andrea Baronchelli· founding
2023
Closed $100M Series C led by Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital SEA· funding
2025
Secured AFSL (Australia), EMI (EU), and US licenses to expand globally· regulatory
2025
Launched Aspire Business Account in US via Column N.A. partnership· banking
2025
Launched Aspire Treasury (Yield) via AFT US Capital LLC· banking
Regulated entities
5
regulatory licences held by Aspire
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
8 layers disclosed in Aspire’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
StripeAspire Payments (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Open banking
in the full report
Unified APIs
in the full report
Sponsor bank
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
13 more providers across 7 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.