Woman-Led Fintech Startup YouTrip Raises $50 Million From Lightspeed

With the goal of being a “first mover” in Southeast Asia’s burgeoning financial technology scene, Caecilia Chu traveled from China to Singapore to launch YouTrip, a multicurrency wallet, in 2018. To the former McKinsey consultant, building trust among customers in a field with “no lack of shiny technology” requires a local, homegrown approach.

“We are not trying to be one product, one platform that serves worldwide needs,” says Chu, who serves as CEO of YouTrip, in a video interview from the startup’s headquarters in Singapore. “We very much target Singaporean companies, and for each of the markets that we branch into, we heavily localize our product, we localize the partners we use.”