Singapore-based peer-to-peer lending platform Validus has attracted $20m in an ongoing series B-plus round co-led by conglomerate Kuok Group’s Orion Fund and backed by building materials supplier Siam Cement Group’s AddVentures unit, TechCrunch reported yesterda.
Singaporean government-owned venture capital firm Vertex Ventures co-led the round through its Vertex Growth Fund and also invested through its Southeast Asia and India unit, participating alongside Dutch international development bank FMO.
Openspace Ventures, the VC arm of private equity firm Northstar, helped fill out the round alongside VinaCapital Ventures, a Vietnam-focused fund established by investment manager and real estate development firm VinaCapital.
Founded in 2015, Validus operates a peer-to-peer lending platform that connects small and medium-sized enterprises to a range of accredited loan providers following a credit assessment that takes into account the applicant’s cash flow, contracts and invoices.
The service was initially targeted at Singapore-based businesses but has since expanded into Indonesia and Vietnam, with plans to enter Thailand in late 2020 using proceeds from the series B-plus round.
Validus has witnessed its credit-approved unsecured loans soar 50% year-on-year over recent months amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Nikhilesh Goel, its co-founder and chief operating officer, said.
Moreover, the company believes it can withstand Covid-19-related effects on small businesses because its SME clients tend to sell services to either large corporations or government-linked entities.
The business secured more $15.2m for its FMO-led series B round in February 2019, luring contributions from AddVentures, Vertex Ventures, Openspace Ventures and VinaCapital Ventures, as well as financial services group Cathay Financial.
Vertex Ventures had led Validus’s $3.6m series A round with a $3m commitment in 2017, participating alongside assorted angel investors, after an earlier pre-series A round with angel backers closed at approximately $726,000.