Singapore-based startup GoBear has announced that it will cease doing business, citing inability to raise funds due to the global coronavirus crisis.
The company, which provides insurance comparison and other financial services, said in a statement that the pandemic has made operations and fund-raising “very challenging”. The pandemic has caused demand for several financial products and services, such as travel insurance, to weaken significantly.
This comes just a few months after its latest funding round in May 2020. It was led by Walvis Participaties and Aegon, and raised US$17 million. In the same month, GoBear acquired Singaporean digital lending firm AsiaKredit. The startup had raised a total of US$97 million in funding since its establishment in 2015.
According to GoBear, it will close its business in a “phased and controlled” manner and will follow the local laws of the markets it operates in. It is present in seven Asian markets – Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam – and Ukraine. The company claims to have served over 55 million users.
In September 2020, GoBear cut 22 employees from its operations, product, and technology teams. This amounted to 11{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} of its total 200-member workforce.
“This is a difficult time for our employees, and our priority is to conduct the process with the utmost care and guidance to our staff,” said GoBear CEO Adrian Chng. “We take our responsibility to our customers, employees, partners and vendors very seriously and we intend to fulfil our existing commitments to them as part of an orderly business closure process.”
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