Across Southeast Asia, small and medium-sized enterprises are the driving force of economic growth, yet many still face obstacles when accessing financing, managing payments, and expanding beyond their home markets. Fintech innovation is reshaping this reality by bridging gaps through digital payment infrastructures, data-driven lending, and localized financial tools.

In this episode of ATP, Chen Yu (Nicholas) Liao, CEO of Whalet, and Vikas Jain, Country Head (Thailand) at Funding Societies, argue that the region’s fragmentation, multiple currencies, regulations, and languages, makes regional trade complex and that the path forward is “global vision, local rails”.

Some of the topics that Nicholas and Vikas covered in detail include:

• Cross-border revenue is the most resilient, highest-quality revenue an SME can earn. The difference between aspiration and execution is whether you meet customers where they already are
• In fragmented markets like Southeast Asia, trust is the conversion rate. Every mismatch between what a customer expects and what your business actually offers is silent churn.
• Payments data is the new collateral. Alternative data collapses the time it takes to earn credit trust. The faster an SME can turn “sales” into “creditworthiness,” the faster it can inventory up, hire, and expand.
• Lending and payments are two sides of the same coin. If a payment platform can provide verifiable, permissioned sales data to a lending platform, you can unlock pre-approved, one-click offers at the moment of need.
• AI could now be the SME’s unfair advantage if they know how to use it well. AI narrows the talent gap and turns lean teams into leverage.