Sydney, Australia – Comparison platform Finder has acquired the financial content platform GoBear in order to drive its growth and presence in the Southeast Asia region.
It should be recalled that GoBear had announced last January this year that they will be ceasing operations due to constraints in funding to continue operating.
“Both Finder and GoBear believe in the importance of improving people’s financial health. We are happy to see that the GoBear brand will continue to live on and it will be exciting to see where Finder will bring it next,” said Jinnee Lim, chief strategy officer at GoBear.
Through the acquisition, GoBear’s trademark and digital assets including domains, website content and social channels in seven markets: Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia will be acquired. The GoBear brand will continue to operate via social media and email channels, however the website content will now form part of finder.com and its local services.
Finder, which is founded by Frank Restuccia, Fred Schebesta and Jeremy Cabral, envisions that through the acquisition, they hope to serve 438 million unbanked consumers in the region, as there is a significant opportunity for growth as digital financial services is set to grow to a $60 billion industry by 2025, according to Bain and Company.
“Like Finder, GoBear has been committed to improving the financial wellbeing of its audience, with over 55 million people having visited its website since its launch in 2015 to make better-informed decisions. Finder’s mission is to help people all over the world make better financial decisions and we’re excited to ramp up our offering to the region through a recognised brand like GoBear,” Restuccia stated.
He added, “We see Finder as playing an important role in the financial ecosystem to help Asian consumers make decisions that are right for them when it comes to financial products and services.”
