How FinHero is championing financial inclusion with technology
Top Lim didn’t set out to become a startup founder. For most of his career, he was in the corporate world, navigating the familiar grind of tech and finance as a program manager for an IT company. But beneath it all, he harbored a bigger ambition.
“I wanted to nurture financial inclusion – an ecosystem that provides financing to as much of the population as possible.”
That vision set his entrepreneurial journey in motion:
“What if we flipped the lens? Instead of only looking at historical data, what if we built a system that looks at the positives — the potential — instead?”
The 2016-2017 Bitcoin bull run ignited Top’s fascination with the blockchain, opening his eyes to the potential of technology to transform financial services. He saw what many didn’t — an opportunity to bridge financial gaps by building a more inclusive, tech-powered ecosystem.
Fast forward to 2019, Top joined forces with co-founders Nor Angelos Afendras, Gary Heah, Khoo Boo Sean, and Soh Ooi Kean Jin to launch FinHero – a Penang-based fintech startup on a mission to unlock equitable financing for all.
Smarter credit for an inclusive future
FinHero uses next-generation technologies like AI to go beyond conventional credit scoring models – factoring in real-time business cash flow and alternative data sources. This delivers a clearer picture of financial health, thus enabling a better assessment of a business’s true potential.
“Instead of only looking at the past, we ask: What’s working right now?” explained Top.
In 2024, FinHero joined the Microsoft Startup for Founders Hub, gaining access to AI tools that can help accelerate product development. One key example: FinHero’s AI-driven credit analysis tool, powered by Microsoft Azure AI Document Intelligence, can scan and interpret a wide range of financial documents – from printed receipts, banking statements, to handwritten notes – cutting document processing times by up to 70%.
The team at FinHero also leverages GitHub to strengthen their development process, using AI-assisted coding tools to spot bugs, suggest improvements, and automate routine tasks. This not only helps their developers to write cleaner, more reliable code, it also means new features and platform enhancements can be delivered faster, giving users a better, more seamless experience.
Meanwhile, Azure Application Insights empowers FinHero with greater visibility into their platform’s performance,allowing the team to detect and fix technical issues before they impact users. Built-in compliance features also help FinHero stay aligned with evolving regulations and banking standards, ensuring their solutions remain secure and reliable.
Taking their ambitions a step further, FinHero became one of the early adopters of the Malaysia West cloud region – Microsoft’s newly launched hyperscale cloud infrastructure. With secure, in-country data residency and low-latency infrastructure, FinHero can deliver faster, more trusted services to users while scaling their platform for future growth.
From local startup to regional force
By 2024, FinHero welcomed Japan’s NTT Data Corporation as a stakeholder. The collaboration opens new doors across Asia, including access to integrated payment gateways and real-time cash flow analysis — thereby empowering more agile, data-driven financing decisions.
FinHero has since collaborated with RHB Bank and Mudah.my, to embed auto financing, enabling preliminary loan decisions upon successful online application through seamless integration of the bank’s loan system with the automotive marketplace.
But FinHero’s influence extends well beyond Malaysia’s borders.
In partnership with clean energy leader Solarvest, the company expanded its Powervest solar financing program to Vietnam – the first of its kind in the country. Originally launched in Malaysia in 2022, the program helps businesses fund their transition to clean energy, and its success is now powering plans to scale regionally.
Earlier this year, FinHero partnered with CIBI Information Inc., the Philippines’ oldest credit bureau, to modernize credit assessment across ASEAN. Using FinHero’s FinXtract platform, powered by Azure Document Intelligence, CIBI is streamlining financial data processing and expanding credit access for MSMEs and underserved communities.
Building an inclusive ecosystem for all
FinHero is building a trusted ecosystem for smarter, more inclusive finance.
For Top and his team, this is just the beginning.
“We want to create a utopic financial ecosystem”, said Top. “One where data across sources are considered – creating a low-risk, compliant environment that still feels sustainable and open. We want to give everyone a fair shot, no matter where they come from.”