Not long ago, fintech in Southeast Asia was all about rapid growth, relentless market expansion, and a race for market share. As the sector matures, that ethos is beginning to shift. Some fintechs are now redefining progress, not by how fast they grow, but by how selectively they do it.
In a session titled “From rails to risk: The fintech profit stack in Indonesia & Southeast Asia” at DealStreetAsia’s Indonesia PE-VC Summit 2026, speakers reflected on how fintech growth in the region is being recalibrated as the sector matures away from rapid expansion and towards focus.
For Mikiko Steven, Managing Director of Xendit, the lesson has been painfully clear.
“At the start, we wanted to be B2B and B2C. Only after several years did we realise that we didn’t have the DNA for B2C,” Steven said during the panel discussion.
“So up until now, we focus on B2B. And when we focus on B2B, we pick and choose which segments we want to deep dive into instead of serving everybody,” he added.
In a November conversation with DealStreetAsia, its chief revenue officer (CRO) Nazim Ali said that for 2026, Xendit is doubling down on its strengths to expand its enterprise pipeline, enhancing cross-border payment capabilities and building targeted partnerships across fintech and banking networks.
Eric Proulx, CFO of Pluang, echoed the restraint sentiment from the lens of product and operational discipline.
“Initially, the mandate from investors was clear: volume, volume, volume,” he said. “But sometimes, what we forget is we need to create products that people want to use and don’t mind paying for.”
The Jakarta-based wealthtech firm has been known to be in talks to raise about $35 million from investors including MUFG Innovation Partners, the corporate venture arm of Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, DealStreetAsia reported in September.
The emphasis on focus isn’t just from founders, investors are echoing it too.
Sandeep Kher, Operating Partner at Peak XV Partners, said fintech success requires focus and patience: “There’s no single winning model, but doing everything is the losing one. Go deep, become the system of record, then expand,” he said.
“Fintech success is rarely linear. The best outcomes come from staying longer than expected,” he added.
Stacking on payments, navigating regulation
For Xendit, building a payments business is no longer enough. “Payments, by nature, are becoming a commodity. The default revenue model is transaction-based fees. We negotiate infrastructure costs, improve margins, but that’s not enough,” Steven said. “So we had to create more products to increase stickiness…”
“The way we look at it is: yes, you need to go deep in one revenue segment, but no single segment is enough. You need products that create stickiness,” he added.
Peak XV Partners’s Kher added that commoditisation of payments has become a global trend. “Payments eventually stop being a product and become a platform. We’ve seen this in India. Once payments are commoditised, the next evolution is building products on top,” he said.
Regulation, panelists stressed, is also a non-negotiable pillar underpinning fintech sustainability.
“Each market and regulator is different, so there’s no perfect predictability. But what helps is cross-learning,” Kher said. “We bring founders together across markets so they understand how regulators think elsewhere. Regulations tend to mirror each other over time. India has been relatively progressive, and sharing those learnings helps founders in Indonesia, the Middle East, and Australia.”
For Xendit, early exposure to Indonesia’s complex regulatory environment shaped its approach to expansion. “We were lucky to start in Indonesia, which is one of the most complex regulatory environments in the region. The government cares deeply about consumer protection and commitment,” Steven said.
“When we expanded to the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, we weren’t starting from zero. We already knew the pitfalls. When entering new markets, we often partner with or acquire local operators who understand the regulatory nuances.”
Pluang also highlighted regulatory discipline as a core operational requirement. “We operate multiple licences across different legal entities, and each must be independently viable from an operational and profitability standpoint. So we’ve built teams specifically for this: operations, compliance, regulator-facing teams. It’s part of the business. The good thing is that regulatory costs are mostly fixed. They don’t scale linearly with volume,” Proulx said.
As fintechs stack products and expand across markets, the conversation returned to a recurring theme: disciplined regulatory practices are essential for sustainable growth.
“Fintech deals with other people’s money. Regulation is, therefore, foundational. That’s the single most important message we reinforce with founders. Regulation is the cornerstone of fintech sustainability,” Kher added.
