Aspire becomes Xero’s first business neobank partner in Southeast Asia

‍Singapore, 17 November 2020 - Aspire today announced a partnership with global small business platform, Xero, as the platform’s first business neobank partner in Southeast Asia. The partnership aims to reduce manual data entry and errors for SMEs, accountants and bookkeepers by automatically importing Aspire transactions directly into Xero every hour, providing a true picture of a business’s financial position.

From today, Aspire Business Account holders in Singapore can connect their account to Xero.Accountants and bookkeepers can get custom access from their directors to work independently and securely through Aspire’s Finance Manager feature.

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“In the light of recent events, the ability of SMEs to operate remotely without reducing productivity has been crucial to their survival amid the pandemic. The partnership between Xero in Singapore and Aspire aims to digitise local SMEs and their relationship with their accountants with a much more frequent and completely paperless integration,” ​said Joel Leong, Co-founder and Country Manager of Aspire Singapore.

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‍“During a time of extraordinary uncertainty and change, we are pleased to partner with Aspire as part of our mutual commitment to make life better for SMEs and solve one of small business’ biggest problems, cash flow. Xero provides SMEs with the most relevant data at their fingertips.Now together with Aspire, they additionally have transaction information synced every hour, offering a near real-time view of their finances ” said Kevin Fitzgerald, Managing Director of Xero Asia.

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Opening an Aspire Business Account can be done in five minutes, completely free and online, through Aspire’s iOS and Android apps or via the website ​sg.aspireapp.com​. Business owners can transact in 50+ currencies and at some of the lowest fees available through Visa andTransferWise. Signing up for a Xero account can be easily done at ​Xero.com/sg​.

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New Xero users will also be eligible to receive 50% off their subscriptions for the first three months on all Xero retail plans (starter, standard and premium), when paid for with the AspireCorporate Card. The Aspire Card is a free, virtual debit card for day-to-day business expenses across multiple currencies with low transaction fees. It offers robust security standards, user identification, expense categorization and is integrated with Google Pay.

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About Aspire

Aspire is the first SME neobank in Southeast Asia serving a new generation of business owners with a mobile-first business account. Opening an account is free, can be done online within 5minutes, and comes with Aspire Card offering 1% cashback on qualified spend. Other account features include the best-in-market FX rates by TransferWise to over 50 currencies, and access to a credit line to grow small businesses. Aspire offers diverse integrations to its customers such as Xero and Google Pay.

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Founded in 2018 by former Lazada founders and executives, Aspire is backed by world-class investors and financial partners such as Y Combinator. It has partnered with leading financial firms like Visa and TransferWise to power card and FX solutions. Aspire operates in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

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About Xero

Xero is a cloud-based accounting software platform for small businesses with 2.45 million subscribers globally. Through Xero, small business owners and their advisors have access to real-time financial data any time, anywhere and on any device. Xero offers an ecosystem of over 800 third-party apps and 200 plus connections to banks and other financial partners. In2020, Xero was included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index and recognised by ​IDCMarketScape as a leader in its worldwide SaaS and cloud-enabled small business finance and accounting applications vendor assessment.

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‍Media Contact

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Aspire

Thibaud, Co-founder and CMO

thibaud@aspireapp.com

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Marcella, Branding & Communications Executive

marcella@aspireapp.com