ATOME

Atome was born inside Advance Intelligence Group, a Singapore tech company founded by Jefferson Chen. The group started in data science and credit scoring, helping banks and lenders spot good borrowers and block fraud.

Atome, launched in 2019, was the consumer-facing product built on top of that. The name is meant to echo the phrase available to me.

The idea was to give shoppers instant, interest-free installments in markets where credit cards are rare.

Atome splits a purchase into three interest-free payments for the shopper. The merchant gets paid in full right away, minus a fee.

That merchant fee is the core revenue. Atome makes money because stores are happy to pay for bigger baskets and fewer abandoned carts.

The parent group also earns from its credit-scoring and lending technology sold to banks. So there are two engines.

The flashy consumer app and the quieter software behind it.

Atome is the main product, a three-installment pay-later button used at checkout online and in stores. There is also an Atome card and lending products that extend credit beyond a single purchase.

Behind the consumer brand sits Advance.AI, the group's credit-scoring and identity-verification software used by banks and businesses across Asia.

Atome grew by signing up big-name retailers fast. It partnered with thousands of merchants across fashion, beauty, and lifestyle in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Being part of Advance Intelligence Group helped, because the group already had the credit-scoring muscle to underwrite new users quickly. It leaned on brand partnerships and a clean checkout experience rather than heavy discounting.

Pay-later is easy to launch and hard to make profitable. Atome lends to young shoppers, many with thin credit histories, so bad debt is a constant worry.

The global pay-later boom cooled hard after 2021, and investors turned cautious on the whole model. Regulators across Southeast Asia have also started writing rules for pay-later, which raises costs.

Atome has had to focus more on healthy margins and less on pure growth.

The big name is SoftBank. Its Vision Fund 2 co-led the $400 million round in 2021 alongside Warburg Pincus, a major private equity firm.

Earlier backers included SoftBank Ventures Asia, Vision Plus Capital, and Gaorong Capital. That mix of deep-pocketed global funds gave Atome the balance sheet to fund lending and expand across the region.