China-based online lending marketplace Dianrong is looking to raise $100m from investors including financial services firms Orix and Standard Chartered, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The two are part of a prospective consortium of new and existing investors that also includes Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, and the funding will come after a $10m cash injection from Dianrong co-founder and CEO Kevin Guo in December 2018.
Dianrong runs an online peer-to-peer lending platform that is among China’s largest, but it has been struck by regulatory uncertainty regarding the industry, and last month laid off 2,000 workers and shuttered 60 of its 90 online stores.
The funding would be used to support daily operations for Dianrong while it waits for the results of a government decision stating which members of the country’s online lending sector will receive licences and therefore be able to operate.
The company has raised almost $540m in the past four years, including $207m in a 2015 series C round co-led by Standard Chartered and China Fintech Fund that included industrial leasing firm Bohai Leasing.
GIC led the $220m first tranche of a $290m series C round, investing with CMIG Leasing and Simone Investment Managers, before Orix subsidiary Orix Asia Capital joined CLSA, part of investment bank Citic Securities, for the $70m second close in January 2018.
Financial services firm Dalian Finance Industry Investment Group subsequently provided another $40m in funding for Dianrong in August. Its investors also include financial services firm AMTD, Tiger Global Management, Northern Light Venture Capital and Max Giant.
