What does it take to forge a leading global fintech hub? Having lived in London for decades and experienced the city’s ecosystem from its earliest days as a founding team member of Innovate Finance—widely regarded as the world’s first truly successful trade body for the financial technology industry—the core ingredients are etched into my memory. They are familiar to anyone in the sector: favorable regulation, deep access to talent, reliable streams of investment, and advantageous time zones.
For years, I have heard the old adage that "London is Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Washington all wrapped into one." It is a phrase I have always liked because it accurately reflects my lived experience supporting countless companies throughout my career. In the British capital, a tech entrepreneur can realistically meet amazingly talented software engineers in the morning and engage in high-level discussions with representatives from the world’s biggest financial institutions by the afternoon, perhaps at a regulatory sandbox hosted by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). All of this can happen seamlessly in a single day.
Furthermore, London benefits enormously from its media ecosystem. All of the world’s top media outlets maintain a strong presence in the city, offering access to elite journalists who effectively beam these stories out to a population that adopts new financial technology at a speed few other nations can match. It comes as little surprise that this great global megacity is home to more fintech unicorns than any other nation on earth, trailing only the United States and China—the world’s two largest economies.
Fourteen years have passed since the launch of Innovate Finance and its subsequent mission to support many of the world’s most successful fintech startups, from Revolut and Wise to Klarna and Monzo. There is undoubtedly a great deal that the United Kingdom can be proud of when reflecting on this journey. Yet, what has captured my attention with increasing intensity lately is the remarkable evolution taking place on the other side of the world.
Shifting Focus to the East
To put it simply, I have been thoroughly blown away by what I am witnessing in Singapore, prompting me to try and decode its secret sauce. Over the past five years, the country’s fintech sector has successfully raised more than $12.5 billion. Today, it serves as the home base for over 1,600 registered fintech firms, accounting for nearly 60 percent of all fintech funding within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region and more than half of its total transaction deals.
This begs a fundamental question: How can a geographic location that is noticeably smaller in both total population and physical landmass than London manage to transform itself into such an absolute epicenter for financial innovation?
Beyond Silicon Valley: Homegrown Success
To find the answers, one only needs to examine the scaling journey of entrepreneurs like Rahul Shinghal, the CEO and co-founder of Tazapay. His Singapore-headquartered B2B cross-border payment company was established just six years ago and recently achieved a monumental milestone by being acquired by Circle in a deal reportedly valued at $400 million by various media outlets.
During a panel discussion hosted at INSEAD’s Singapore campus, Shinghal told an audience of attentive business students that Singapore represents an exceptional place to scale a fintech enterprise, provided that the business has achieved clear market fit. In his view, founders can largely forget about relocating to the UK or San Francisco, because everything else required for sustainable growth is readily accessible right there in the island nation.
Singapore’s Secret Sauce Is No Big Secret
Shinghal’s assessment is entirely accurate. Much like London, Singapore possesses the essential regulatory backing, a deep pool of specialized talent, and robust investment capital. Added to this is its strategic proximity to some of the largest consumer populations in the world, prime for conversion into active fintech users. Major international press outlets also maintain dedicated correspondents stationed in Singapore, ensuring that the biggest technological advancements emerging from the city-state are immediately broadcast to a global audience.
However, another major draw—and a true game-changer for businesses—is Singapore’s highly competitive tax regime. Featuring a corporate tax rate capped at 17 percent, zero taxes on dividends or capital gains, and a personal income tax ceiling of 24 percent, Singapore operates miles ahead of the UK when it comes to maintaining a business-friendly environment. This framework undoubtedly explains why so many international companies have chosen to establish their headquarters there and continue to thrive.
The tangible proof of this regulatory and economic approach is visible in its results. The roster of Singapore-headquartered companies capturing both local and global market share is striking in both its corporate caliber and operational quality.
Best of Breed: Fintech Giants Taking the World by Storm
Consider Airwallex, a global platform designed to help businesses manage complex cross-border payments and multi-currency accounts. At this year’s Formula 1 Grand Prix in Singapore, the company’s branding was ubiquitous, having secured its position as the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team’s first official AI finance partner. The firm’s valuation soared to an impressive $11 billion following a massive $320 million Series H funding round completed in June.
Another prominent example is Grab, Southeast Asia’s multi-billion-dollar "everyday, everything" super app. While many visitors to Singapore initially view it simply as a regional equivalent to Uber, the platform’s utility extends far beyond ride-hailing. Over various visits, I have utilized the application to book taxis, purchase travel insurance, rent bicycles, apply for credit cards, secure restaurant reservations, and settle dining bills. I even used it to open an account with GXS, an innovative local digital bank. Thanks to Singpass—Singapore’s transformative digital identity infrastructure securely stored on a mobile device—the customer onboarding and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes were executed with total efficiency.
This expansive roster of fintech superstars continues with Nium, a unicorn that constructs foundational cross-border payment infrastructure for enterprises, and Coda Payments, a global leader in digital content monetization and distribution. Coda made major headlines across Europe when it acquired Dutch prepaid payments platform Recharge, in a transaction hailed as the largest fintech acquisition in Dutch history. Other notable names include ShopBack, a widely used free cashback and rewards platform, and the Advance Intelligence Group, both of which are pioneering advancements in the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) and enterprise software solution spaces.
Built on Efficiency and Frictionless Innovation
Reflecting on the foundations of this economic miracle, Lee Kuan Yew, the founding Prime Minister of Singapore, famously attributed the nation’s success to a deliberate rejection of economic populism and a firm belief that foreign investments are vital, requiring the government to make Singapore continually attractive to global capital.
The nation has clearly succeeded in fulfilling that mission. Much like the catchphrase used by my local GXS bank, its ongoing institutional commitment to supporting innovation "breaks boundaries, not sweat."
Yet, what truly makes this ecosystem function so effectively on a daily basis is its profound efficiency. Everything operates brilliantly and remarkably frictionlessly. As an added observation, the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) underground rail system is phenomenal, offering exceptional cleanliness and punctuality at a remarkably affordable price, with return tickets costing less than £2. While Singapore is undeniably an expensive place to live, much like any major global city, residents get the distinct impression that their tax dollars are being invested wisely into infrastructure that actually works.
While London remains a flourishing global fintech hub that will always feel like home, I cannot help but be deeply impressed by the tenacity, speed, and scale of Singapore’s financial ecosystem. I eagerly anticipate meeting more visionary founders and listening to many of the industry’s biggest stars at the upcoming Singapore Fintech Festival, where we will discover where the next wave of financial innovation is destined to take us.
