Singapore-based financial products comparison platform GoBear has announced that Adrian Chng will succeed Andre Hesselink as its new CEO next Monday.
Adrian Chng is a veteran in the startup and fintech circle. The Malaysia-born entrepreneur who grew up in Australia ran Asian jobs portal JobsDB.com as its Group CEO from 2011 to 2014 and moved on to investing in and starting a number of companies, including venture capital firm Fintonia.
During his time with JobsDB.com, he also led an Australian dollar 1 billion (around $740 million) merger with JobStreet.com.
“There is no doubt that faster, cheaper and easier access to basic financial services improves people’s lives,” said Chng. “That is why I am so excited to join GoBear right now; we are in the middle of launching new products and expanding into new markets like Indonesia — we are reaching more and more every day.”
Launched in 2015, GoBear was started as a partnership between two Dutch companies: insurance company Aegon and private equity fund Walvis.
Currently, the company boasts a presence in six markets including home base Singapore and employs over 100 people. It claims to have served more than 29 million users comparing more than 2,000 personal finance products, such as insurance, credit cards and loans.
Outgoing CEO Hesselink will return to the Netherlands and continue to work with GoBear as a Special Advisor.
Hesselink said: “I am proud of how much GoBear has accomplished, becoming a leading Asian financial comparison platform. I would like to thank the employees, partners, and users of GoBear for making this possible. I will definitely miss my day-to-day involvement with GoBear, but I am assured that the company is in very capable hands to make it even more successful.”
Chng will lead the pan-Southeast Asian company alongside GoBear co-founders Ivonne Bojoh, Frank Stevenaar, and Marnix Zwart.
Under Hesselink’s leadership in the past, GoBear has aspirations of becoming the “TripAdvisor of financial services“. It is unclear yet what will change now when Chng comes on board this July 16.
Editor: Ben Jiang