Aspire App Referral Code: CMUP7KA8 (Digital Business Bank Account Referral Program)

About Aspire

All-in-one finance for growing businesses.

Corporate Background

Aspire is headquartered in Singapore with teams in Indonesia and Vietnam, and backed by leading venture capital firms and private investors.

Aspire is the trade name used by the Aspire group of companies, which includes Aspire FT Pte. Ltd. and Aspire Financial Technologies Pte. Ltd., both of which are fully owned subsidiaries of Aspire Financial Technologies Holdings Inc.

Mission

Aspire is the all-in-one finance operating system for growing businesses. Aspire helps companies pay, manage, and earn smarter - by doing more than a bank, bookkeeper, or reward program could ever do alone.

Their mission is to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs with the financial tools they need to realise their company’s full potential.

Today, we’re proud to have helped over 15,000 modern businesses across Southeast Asia streamline their finance operations. [Feb 2023]

Corporate Highlights

• Q4 2023: Aspire unveiled their new downtown Singapore headquarters, graced by host Peter Ong, Chairman of Enterprise Singapore and Board Member of Monetary Authority Board Singapore.
• Feb 2023: Aspire closed an oversubscribed US$100 million Series C round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia Southeast Asia, with participation from PayPal Ventures, LGT Capital Partners, Picus Capital and MassMutual Ventures.
• 27 Sep 2021: Aspire raises US$158 Million series B round to double down on its All-in-one Finance OS for growing businesses in South East Asia.
• 11 May 2021: US$1 billion in annualized transaction volumes within one year of the launch of its business accounts.

Awards

• LinkedIn’s 10 Top Startups in Singapore [2023]
• #8 Singapore’s fastest-growing companies in 2023 (The Straits Times and Germany-based global research firm Statista)
• Startup Fintech Award (Technode Global)
• #1 Hottest Startup 2020 (Singapore Business Review)
• Startup of the Year 2021 (Asia Fintech Awards)

Notable Partners

Some customer names that ring a bell with us:

• Circles.life
• Endowus
• Grain
• HipVan
• Ohm.sg - Fuss-Free Energy

Is Aspire regulated in Singapore?

Aspire FT Pte. Ltd. is currently exempted from holding a licence to provide payment services in Singapore under the Payment Services Act (No. 2 of 2019). You can find the list of exempted entities here. Credit lines to businesses are issued by Aspire Financial Technologies Pte. Ltd, which is an excluded moneylender under the Moneylenders Act (Cap. 188).

“Your funds are kept strictly segregated in a trust account with a tier-1 bank which is safeguarded in accordance with the Payment Services Act, following MAS guidelines on the same.”

Source: Aspire Knowledge Base

How much does an Aspire account cost?

As of October 2023, for SMEs:

• No monthly fees.
• Invite up to 2 Admins or Finance users and up to 10 Employee users for free.
• Enjoy access to Aspire’s full suite of software, including corporate cards, budgeting tools, invoicing, and more.

For larger business clients, Aspire offers Enterprise subscriptions, providing custom features and volume usage discounts.

Service portfolio of Aspire

This sections lists the core service portfolio of Aspire.

Built upon the service portfolio are features like:

• Bill Pay
• Multi-User Access
• Expense Management
• Solution Integrations
• Cashback
• Rewards

Cards: Aspire Visa Card

“The smartest corporate card for digital SMEs and Startups”

Aspire card capabilities:

• support Apple Pay (since May 2022) and Google Pay
• customise Card Spend Limits with greater flexibility including one-time, daily, monthly, quarterly and more options
• ‘Merchant Lock’ allows restricting your Aspire Card spend to specific merchants.

Credit: Aspire Line of Credit

A line of credit for your working capital needs - up to S$300k.

Debit: Aspire Business Account

One account for all your business financial needs

EUR/GBP support

Clients can open a EUR/GBP multi-currency account on Aspire for free

With a EUR account, you will be able to:

• Send: Free local transfers via SEPA, CHAPS and FPS. FX transfers at the best FX rates.
• Receive: EUR/GBP via your own unique local account details.
• Hold: EUR/GBP funds in an account safeguarded with a Tier-1 bank in Singapore

Check out the FAQs (EUR, GBP) for more information.

USD support

Aspire added USD account support in March 2022. Business owners can now:

• open a USD account in minutes with no account fees
• enjoy free local USD transfers,
• convert USD to over 30+ currencies at the best FX rates.
• receive funds from 180+ countries, in 30+ currencies. Converted to USD at Google rates.
• issue USD Debit Cards!
  • spend directly in USD with 0 FX losses.
  • or make foreign currency card payments at competitive FX rates

How to fulfill the referral terms and get the referral bonus credited into your Aspire Business account?

1. Sign up and install Aspire app

After signing up at the website, install the Aspire app from the app store. Alternatively, you can sign up directly from within the app.

2. Deposit funds into Aspire Business account

A DBS bank account under your company’s name will have been created by Aspire upon account opening.

Retrieve the DBS account details from the Aspire app and you can do a FAST transfer to deposit some funds.

The funds should be received and reflected in the Aspire app almost instantaneously.

3. Make a purchase with the Aspire virtual corporate debit card

The final step is to make some purchase using the Aspire virtual debit card. Upon a successful transaction, the referral bonus should be credited instantly and you would receive a notification from the Aspire app.

For example: buying some office supplies from Shopee

You can actually add the Aspire card to Google Pay or Apply Pay (since May 2022) which then allows you to pay at physical stores via payWave.

Experience sharing

Check transaction records

You can conveniently check your transaction records from the Aspire app.

Language options

Aspire added support for Simplified and Traditional Chinese user interface in 2023.

PayNow support

Make PayNow payments from your SGD account via QR code, phone number, NRIC, UEN, Virtual Payment Address (VPA).

In July 2023, Aspire added the PayNow feature for free, instant transfers. Now I can simply scan the PayNow QR code on the invoices I receive from my suppliers, which greatly eases my workflow.

Separation of expenses

I find the Aspire corporate card useful as it helps me to separate company and personal expenses. It is a hassle to remember to submit claims to the company if I use my personal credit card for company expenses.

Send notifications of payments

I like the feature where Aspire can send email and SMS notifications to the receiving party when I make invoice payments.

Slow loading of app and logins

It takes a few seconds for the Aspire app to load on my Samsung phone and probably another 10 seconds to login. No idea why it needs to take so long and I hope Aspire can improve on this aspect soon.