Brick - Open Banking API Provider in Southeast Asia

Financial App Adoption Surges in Southeast Asia: Meet Brick

A significant increase in the use of financial applications is being observed across Southeast Asian nations, particularly in Indonesia, the region’s most heavily populated country.

Brick, a company established last year by experienced fintech professionals, specializes in the development of APIs. These APIs simplify the process for technology companies to integrate identity verification and access financial data from their user base.

Strategic Partnerships and Expansion Plans

Currently, Brick maintains partnerships with seven of Indonesia’s largest banking institutions, encompassing over 90% of the nation’s bank accounts.

The company intends to broaden its reach to encompass all countries within Southeast Asia.

Addressing the Unbanked Population

A substantial portion – over three-fourths – of the population in Southeast Asia remains unbanked or underbanked, lacking access to traditional banking services or lending options.

Brick aims to serve this demographic through products such as mobile wallet and telco APIs, which are presently in beta testing and scheduled for release in the coming quarter.

Growth and Investment

The startup, now utilized by 250 developers and 35 tech companies, has recently announced a new seed funding round.

The specific amount of funding remains undisclosed.

Investors Backing Brick

Investors participating in this round include Better Tomorrow Ventures, PT Prasetia Dwidharma, 1982 Ventures, Antler, and Rally Cap Ventures.

Angel investors also contributed, including Shefali Roy (TrueLayer COO), Kunal Shah (Cred CEO), Reynold Wijaya (Modalku CEO), Quek Siu Rui (Carousell CEO), and founders from Nium, Xfers, Aspire, BukuWarung, ZenRooms, and CareemPay.

Founding and Leadership

Brick was founded in 2020 by Gavin Tan, the CEO, who previously held a key role at Aspire, a neobank focused on small and medium-sized businesses.

Deepak Malhotra, the CTO, brings experience as a co-founder of the Indian neobank Slice and a former engineer at PayPal.

API Applications Across Financial Sectors

Brick’s APIs are currently implemented in personal financial management, cloud accounting, lending, wealth management, and neobank applications.

Tan indicated that the company foresees applications in areas like savings, stock trading, and financial planning as well.

The Genesis of Brick

Tan’s vision for Brick originated during his time at rapidly growing fintech startups in Southeast Asia, including Aspire.

He identified a critical gap in infrastructure that hindered the speed of product development.

Challenges Faced by Fintech Developers

Without standardized APIs like those offered by Brick, fintech developers often spend considerable time resolving commercial terms, navigating varying technical standards, and managing diverse data standards before launching their applications.

Tan explained that this process can take months.

A diagram illustrating Brick’s range of financial API offerings. Image Credits: Brick

Regulatory Support in Indonesia

Brick, along with other fintech companies, has benefited from supportive regulations in Indonesia.

For instance, Bank Indonesia published open banking API standards in 2020.

Open Banking Standards and Principles

These standards demonstrate a clear acknowledgment by the Indonesian government of open banking principles, including consumer data ownership and the necessity of consent for data transfer and usage.

Tan emphasized that these principles are central to all of Brick’s products.

The standards also established a timeline for the implementation of open APIs, beginning with payment initiation APIs in 2021, which Brick plans to launch later this year.

Collaboration with Regulatory Bodies

Brick actively collaborates with Bank Indonesia and Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority.

The company is also participating in Bank Rakyat Indonesia’s Sembrani Wira accelerator program.

Comparison to Plaid

Brick is often compared to Plaid, a financial API provider that facilitated the growth of open banking and open finance in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

However, a key distinction lies in the market context: Plaid operates in regions where a majority of the population has bank accounts.

Addressing the Unbanked in Southeast Asia

“In Southeast Asia, only 25% of adults regularly use a bank account,” Tan stated.

“For the 75% unbanked and underbanked adults, their data resides in alternative financial data sources.”

Expanding Data Sources

To reach this underserved market, Brick is developing APIs for alternative financial data sources, including mobile wallets, telecommunications companies, utility providers, e-commerce platforms, social security systems, and tax offices.

Focus on Indonesia and Future Expansion

The company’s current focus is on product launches within Indonesia.

Plans are underway to expand into other high-growth fintech markets, such as Singapore, the Philippines, and Vietnam, later in the year.