ON DEC 31 last year, Singapore-based fintech startup Bambu had shut down. This is hardly unusual: Startups shut down all the time, especially in an economic downturn – except the company was moving closer to profitability earlier in the year.

“We had large clients and we were getting there,” Ned Phillips, founder and CEO of the B2B fintech firm, told Tech in Asia in an interview.

A source close to the company told Tech in Asia that an investor “pulled the rug because the market was down and the burn was not reducing enough”.