Every industry has its share of award shows, and fintech is no different.
But every so often, one comes along that manages to feel grounded and relevant. It doesn’t chase headlines or reward the loudest voice in the room. Instead, it puts the spotlight on the people building quietly, often without the attention they deserve.
That was the premise behind the Fintech Frontiers 50 Awards, held on 5 August 2025 at The Estate on Federal Hill in Kuala Lumpur. Timed to coincide with Malaysia’s MyFintech Week, the event drew founders, regulators, investors, and ecosystem builders from across the region.
This wasn’t the usual night of trophies and polite applause. There were no nomination fees, no promotional budgets, and no pay-to-play schemes. What earned someone a place on the list was merit, assessed through a clear and structured process that put impact first and ignored the noise.
This year’s list celebrates 50 fintech founders from across ASEAN. They represent the builders (some you might’ve heard of, while others are still under the radar) who are creating the infrastructure, products, and systems shaping the region’s financial future.
So, how were these 50 founders chosen? That’s where the process itself stands out.
An Awards Programme That Actually Means Something
It’s hard not to be sceptical about awards these days. Glossy ceremonies with big sponsorships and suspiciously familiar winners are a dime a dozen. But the Fintech Frontiers 50 set out to do things differently from the start.
The judging process for the Fintech Frontiers 50 Awards was structured to ensure transparency and merit-based recognition across four key stages.
Stage 1: Public Nomination
More than 200 nominations poured in from across the region, reflecting the fintech community’s depth and diversity.
Stage 2: Eligibility Screening
From those, the judges shortlisted and narrowed it down to 92, after meeting strict eligibility criteria that ensured only relevant and credible candidates moved forward. To qualify, nominees had to:
- Be the original founder or a founding member, playing a central role in establishing the company
- Still be actively involved in the company’s leadership
- Has headquarter(s) in Southeast Asia
- Have Southeast Asia as one of their key markets
- Comply with relevant local regulations
- Have been operating for at least two years
Stage 3: Public Voting
Over 15,000 votes were cast by the fintech community. The top 70 finalists advanced to the final stage based on popular voting.
Stage 4: Final Evaluation
A final scoring round determined the 50 winners, using a balanced evaluation of founder profile, financial track record, and business model innovation.
From this pool, the judges selected the top 50 based on three equally weighted scoring criteria:
- Founder Profile (10 points): Assessed leadership, experience, vision, and the founder’s ability to build and give back to the ecosystem.
- Financial Track Record (10 points): Reviewed company performance, revenue growth, and sustainability to determine foundational strength.
- Business Model (10 points): Evaluated scalability, innovation, and social impact, including how the solution addresses market needs and delivers real community value.
There were over than 17,000 community votes. From there, the Emerging 35 were selected by analysts from Fintech News Network and EY.
Then came the Frontier 15, who were handpicked by a panel that included some of the region’s most respected fintech voices, with the list including the likes of Coen Jonker (Tyme Group), Amrish Rau (Pine Labs), Carrie Suen (Ant International), among others.
The idea was simple. Winners were recognised for what they’ve built, not for how much noise they’ve made.
The Winners of the 2025 Fintech Frontiers 50 Awards
The 2025 cohort represents a cross-section of fintech’s evolution in ASEAN, with each winner selected based on real-world traction, regional relevance, and product innovation.
Beyond the recognition, winners were also awarded a full feature in the Fintech Frontiers 50 Booklet, ongoing editorial coverage across the Fintech News Network, and priority access to interviews, expert commentary, and media features over the next year.
This means the awards weren’t just a one-night celebration. For the 50 founders on this list, it’s a platform for visibility and long-term credibility in front of regulators, partners, and investors alike.
Here’s the full list of winners:
Frontier 15
Emerging 35
For those who’ve been watching this space closely, it’s become harder to separate real innovation from the surrounding noise.
The Fintech Frontiers 50 stands out because it puts the focus where it belongs. It highlights teams that are building genuinely useful products, reaching overlooked communities, and laying down infrastructure that others in the industry can build on.
Because if history is anything to go by, many of these names won’t stay “emerging” for long.
With Thanks to Our Partners
We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all our sponsors and partners who helped make the Fintech Frontiers 50 Awards a success.
The programme was organised by us, Fintech News Network, and made possible by the support of organisations across the region who believe in recognising real innovation.
Our Platinum Sponsor, Amazon Web Services (AWS), stood behind this mission with unwavering commitment. So did our Gold Sponsors, PayNet and Cloudflare, our Silver Sponsors, Thredd and Bronze Sponsor Boost, whose contributions helped bring this event to life.
We are also grateful to our Industry Partner, the Fintech Association of Malaysia (FAOM), for helping to anchor the programme in national priorities, and to our Knowledge Partner, EY, whose expertise helped shape a fair and credible judging process.
Not to forget, our Association Partners, the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA), Fintech Alliance.Ph, and the Asia Fintech Alliance, whose regional networks helped us reach across ASEAN, surfacing nominations and connecting communities along the way.
To each of these organisations, thank you for helping us keep this programme true to its founding principle: to celebrate merit, not marketing. And to the builders on this list, your work is what made this night matter.
Here’s to the founders, the dreamers, and the doers.
This article first appeared on Fintech News Malaysia.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Malaysia based on images by Freepik.
