WeLab, a China-based peer-to-peer lending platform backed by media company Tom Group, raised $160m in a series B round led by Khazanah Nasional, the sovereign wealth fund of Malaysia, yesterday.
The round also included financial services firm ING Bank and Guangdong Technology Financial Group, an investment firm operated by China’s government.
Founded in 2013, WeLab aims to provide users in China and Hong Kong with a loan from other individuals if they have no credit record, offering an interest rate of 10% to 20%. It creates risk assessment profiles using information gained from sources such as bill payment records and social media profiles.
The series B capital will support technology development and partnerships with businesses and banks. WeLab has already struck deals with e-commerce company Ule and commercial retail bank Postal Savings Bank of China to create online financial products over the course of this year.
WeLab previously raised $20m in series A funding over two tranches, securing $14m in June 2014 from Tom Group and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. DST Global, a VC firm spun out of internet company Mail.ru, and Iconiq Capital joined Tom Group to add another $6m in January 2015.
WeLab also raised seed funding in 2013, though it has not disclosed details. TechCrunch reports the company’s total funding as $182m, implying the seed round was sized at $2m.