Fin-tech start-up investment value in Southeast Asia, not least in Thailand, is expected to grow five- or six-fold annually in the coming years.

Dave McClure, founding partner at 500startups, a global venture-capital firm based in Silicon Valley in the US, said fin-tech ranked alongside edu[cation]-tech and real-estate tech in terms of the leading sectors for start-up investment potential.

Yesterday, the global venture-capital fund, together with its Thailand fund – 500 TukTuks – announced its first investment in a Thai fin-tech start-up, in a enterprise called T2P Company, a five-year-old start-up.

The investors did not, however, reveal the investment amount.

Thailand is a high-potential country for start-up investment, McClure said.

“We are the most active investors in the fin-tech industry, and T2P is our first [Thai] investment in this field. T2P’s peer-to-peer platform is an interesting service,” he added.

500 Startups’ investment structure consists of a main fund, with 4th-batch values totalling $200 million, and micro-funds of around $10 million-$30 million each.

The micro-funds are divided into country funds, of which there are currently 11, including 500 TukTuks in Thailand, and category funds – mobile and fin-tech.

Krating Poonpol, fund manager of 500 TukTuks, said 70 per cent of the successful start-ups in 500 Startups’ investment portfolio entailed expertise in a specific domain with the potential to grow 15-fold times per year, with fin-tech the best former among them.

“Fin-tech is currently a global phenomenon, a revolution that is forecast become an industry worth about $400 billion in 2025,” he said.

500 TukTuks yesterday also announced batch-2 investment in 10 more start-ups – four of them fin-tech start-ups – with combined funding of $1 million, and the company plans to announce investments in two more fin-tech start-ups soon.

Krating added that 500 TukTuks’s investment aimed to invest in 500 start-ups in Thailand by the end of the decade, having launched its first batch last year with a total fund size of $12 million. It is presently invested in 20 start-ups, and aims to increase this number to 30 by the year’s end.

500 TukTuks will launch its second batch of funding worth $20 million next year, followed by a third batch worth $30 million and a fourth worth $100 million in subsequent years.

Founded in 2011, T2P – a 500 TukTuks batch-2 investment – announced yesterday that it was receiving $1.1 million from three investors: Benchachinda Holding, a group of companies engaged in telecommunication businesses; 500 Startups; and 500 TukTuks.

The three venture-capital operators are taking a combined 20 per cent of T2P shares, with the founders holding the remaining 80 per cent.

T2P’s core business is to provide e-wallets for both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions.

It has provided a B2B e-wallet for corporates since 2011 through products such as cash cards and loyalty cards.

Its B2B e-wallet is used at 1,500 physical outlets by almost 1 million subscribers.

Yesterday, T2P Company launched its new service, a B2C e-wallet called DeepPocket, in a bid to capture a market gap among the unbanked – 30 per cent of the population – and “un-credit card” (less than 20 per cent) segments.

Chief executive officer Taweechai Purithip said DeepPocket is a mobile app serving as a mobile e-wallet to allow users to store up to Bt50,000 to pay for online services.

DeepPocket is initially set to facilitate gamers by making their spending more convenient, while the service will generate revenue via a transaction fee.

“In 2015, revenue generated by T2P Company was Bt10 million, but with the launch of DeepPocket we aim for revenue of between Bt30 million and Bt40 million this year. The B2C e-wallet will contribute around 30 to 40 per cent, but in the next year, B2C e-wallet revenue will surpass that of the B2B e-wallet,” Taweechai said.

The beauty of DeepPocket is its social e-money feature that allows users to pool their friends and family in their DeepPocket, from which they can instantly borrow e-money easily from their network, at a maximum of Bt50 per friend, in case they have less e-money than the actual purchase cost, he explained.