Bypassing the middlemen: banking edition

Check out our top articles for the week. [Read from your browser]( Top Stories of the Week Welcome to Tech in Asia's free Sunday newsletter! Get full access to our subscribers-only premium content and other insightful analysis on the big and messy topics of Asia’s tech and startup community by [registering here](. Hello {NAME} Many tech companies have been built on the premise of bypassing the middleman. Selling your home directly through an online marketplace without the need for a property agent? Designers marketing their products directly to consumers online without going through a third-party distributor? That time has come for banks it seems. For a long time, legacy systems made it challenging for banks to work with ecosystem players. This meant that ecommerce platforms, ride-hailing firms, and other consumer-facing firms looking to offer financial services, whether credit products or a simple debit card, had to go through intermediaries - banking-as-a-service (BaaS) offering developers - and bank-facing [APIs]( to connect with banks more easily. Tech providers like Audax, however, now claim their solution can help traditional banks [work with these ecosystem firms directly](. Its solution is already helping Standard Chartered - Audax’s majority shareholder - to offer its own BaaS solution, which in turn has enabled firms like Bukalapak to make digital banking services available on the ecommerce platform. If Audax CEO Kelvin Tan’s thesis is true, that shareholder pressure will in turn drive more banks to offer BaaS solutions themselves as they play catch-up, intermediary firms should be very worried indeed. -- [Melissa Goh]( journalist at Tech in Asia  --------------------------------------------------------------- TOP STORIES THIS WEEK 1️. [Out with the middlemen: More firms tap banks, BaaS providers for embedded finance]( Using banking as a service, digital banks can lower the cost of acquiring a new customer from US$100 to US$20, tech provider Audax claims. 2. [SEA startups need more cheerleaders, less gossiping: 500 Global partner]( The region's startup scene is also maturing, transitioning from its "teenage years" of following trends and wanting to be cool, investor Khailee Ng says. 3. [Anywheel defies odds to survive Singapore’s bike-sharing wars]( Anywheel was around as a relatively small player during bike-sharing’s heyday in Singapore. Now, it still stands - despite a lack of VC funds. 4. [Capital SEA: Southeast Asia’s funding landscape]( Who are the new active investors on the block? Which funding rounds look like outliers? This visual story answers all this and more. 5. [Carsome, Carro are lobbying for a ‘golden goose’ but winning it is tricky]( The used-car platforms will have to beat Malaysian government-linked companies and royalty to snag a vehicle inspection license. 6. [Surviving the funding game: how timing can make or break your startup]( Industry realities, economic conditions, and market volatility can affect the time gap between funding rounds. 7. [Charting Byju’s 99% fall in valuation]( Once, Byju’s was the brightest star in India’s startup sky, but the edtech firm has seen its once US$22 billion valuation brought down to earth. 8. [20 largest exits in Singapore]( Here's our regularly updated list of the biggest startup exits in Singapore. 9. [Why Blibli’s shares are outperforming GoTo, Bukalapak stocks]( One advantage the company has is a reputation for stability, as most of its shares are held by conglomerate Djarum Group. 10. [Indonesia’s top-funded tech companies in the last decade]( Which companies in the country are getting the lion’s share of investments? 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