Australian price comparison site iSelect takes over South East Asia's top equivalent, iMoney
Australian price comparison company iSelect has boosted its stake in its Malaysian equivalent, iMoney, to take majority share.
Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, iMoney provides price comparison support for crdit cards, loans, broadband and insurance both on its website and over the phone. It operates across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The company bought $4.14mn worth of shares from other shareholders, increasing its stake in iMoney from 23.8% to 51.5%.
The purchase price is the equivalent of 5.9 times iMoney’s revenue for 2017.
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iSelect was the sole investor in iMoney’s $4mn series B funding round in September 2014, since which it has continued to provide financial, operational and technical support.
It has helped iMoney achieve an average annual revenue growth of 80% over three years.
Previous investors in iMoney have included Asian Venture Group, IMJ Investment Partners, 500 Start-ups and Jungle Ventures among others.
Current competitors providing similar services in South East Asia include Compare Asia Group, Money Smart and Jirnexu.
According to iMoney’s co-founder and CEO Lee Ching Wei: “iMoney is entering a particularly exciting growth stage… with the addition of iSelect’s systems, technology and wider group resources, we are confident our growth trajectory can be further accelerated… the increased financial and operational commitment by iSelect is a testament to the success of the business to date.”
iSelect CEO and Managing Director Scott Wilson has stated “the countries that iMoney currently operated in are located in the world’s fastest-growing region and feature a rapidly expanding credit and technolgoy0savvy middle class.”
According to Wilson, GDP rates in the region average 4&% and can be as high as 6.5% per year.
iMoney was recently named in the top 10 fastest-growing Fintech businesses in Malaysia by IDC Financial Insight’s 2017 Fintech report.
