Taking Stock & Looking Ahead | Gender Diversity in Southeast Asia’s FinTech Landscape

Southeast Asia (SEA) is one of the most dynamic regions for FinTech globally. Driven by budding economies, expanding populations, rapid ecommerce penetration, and a growing middle class, FinTech investments across the 10 ASEAN nations reached US$4.3billion (S$5.7billion) during the first nine months of 2022, higher than 2018 to 2020 combined. According to Pitchbook data, the number of FinTech deals in SEA grew over 4x between 2015 to 2022 (from 56 to 225), reaching a record high in 2021, while the number of VC and PE-backed FinTech companies in the region saw similar growth.

Southeast Asia’s FinTech market continues to heat up

Southeast Asia FinTech market by year

Number of companies and number of deals

^{Source: Pitchbook data, accessed 18 October 2023 | Note: Based on Pitchbook “FinTech” vertical}

Despite a slowdown in H1 2023, FinTech will remain a key engine of growth for SEA, and therefore a key hub for talent. Given the high levels of investment in FinTech, private capital has an outsized ability to influence the status quo in Southeast Asia. If VCs were to increase diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across their portfolio, they could greatly impact the way businesses are led and managed in the region. Additionally, research has shown that diversity leads to better investment outcomes, with a recent study in Europe showing that VC funds managed by mixed-gender teams reported a higher annual internal rate of return (IRR), and in particular, teams predominantly composed of women outperformed all-male teams by a notable 9.3 percentage points. Further, mandates and scrutiny around DEI has increased in recent years, with institutional investors and other limited partners (LPs) beginning to bring DEI criteria into their thinking as they allocate funds to general partners (GPs). This reinforces the importance of understanding the industry’s current talent composition, both at the startup as well as at the investor level, and exploring ways the industry can enhance diversity moving forward.

Combining quantitative data with interviews from several leading women founders and investors in the region, Russell Reynolds Associates partnered with the Singapore FinTech Association and FinTech Nation to develop a better understanding of the current state of gender diversity within SEA’s FinTech startup ecosystem, and to highlight challenges, opportunities, and recommendations for the path forward.

State of play: gender diversity across SEA FinTech landscape

Looking across funding stages and role types, from early stage to late stage to public companies, from management to board to even investors, women are heavily underrepresented within the SEA FinTech ecosystem. Across almost 2000 executives in management, board, and investor roles, only 252 are women (13%). It is worth noting that this is in line with broader SEA, across all VC-backed companies in the region (regardless of sector), women account for roughly 14% of management, board, and lead investors.

Women are heavily underrepresented within the SEA FinTech ecosystem

Women representation by level / role type and funding stage in SEA FinTechs

% of women, by role type and by funding stage

^{Source: Pitchbook data, accessed 10 September 2023, total n = 1927 executives | Note: Based on Pitchbook “FinTech” vertical, and based on Pitchbook’s definitions of "Management Team", "Chief Executive Officer", “Founder”, "Board Members & Observers", "Lead Partner“; funding stage defined as “last / most recent deal type”}