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SINGAPORE-BASED peer-to-peer lender Validus Capital has raised $ 20 million in its current round of Series B + funding, including the more than $ 14 million already in the bank. The round was led by Vertex Growth Fund and the Kuok Group Orion Fund, managed by K3 Ventures.
Existing investors FMO (the Netherlands public-private development bank), Vertex Ventures South-East Asia and India, Openspace Ventures, the Thai company Siam Cement Group’s AddVentures and VinaCapital Ventures of Vietnam also participated in the round.
Validus will continue to invest heavily in technology and consolidate its position in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam. The new funds will also support the company’s expansion to Thailand in the fourth quarter of this year.
Validus launched its Indonesian entity, Batumbu, and the Vietnam entity, Validus Vietnam, in May and last November, respectively.
He is currently applying for a crowdfunding license from the Securities and Exchange Commission in Thailand. He estimates that the market opportunity there will be between $ 30 billion and $ 35 billion in unsatisfied demand for credit from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), said co-founder Nikhilesh Goel The Business Times.
Kuok Meng Xiong, managing partner at K3 Ventures, said: “We are very impressed by the leadership and depth of the credit management experience at Validus. The team has demonstrated the unique ability to capture critical data points, combined with comprehensive capabilities. machine learning, to identify high-potential SMEs that may have fallen into the cracks of the traditional banking model. “
Total Validus loans disbursed to date exceed S $ 453 million. Its delinquency rate, which refers to 90-day past due loans, was 2.69 percent last year, up from 2.5 percent the year before. As of April 16, 2020, 60 percent had been recovered.
Goel said the company is seeing healthy demand for short-term financing during the Covid-19 outbreak. In the past three months, there has been an average 50 percent annual increase in your disbursement volume.
On the investment front, Validus has attracted the interest of institutional lenders and high net worth individuals for specific financial offerings for SMEs.
When asked about the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the company’s portfolio, Mr. Goel said: “While there has been no material impact on our portfolio, as the industries most affected are hospitality, tourism, etc., which we don’t have much exposure to – we expect to see some SME loans stretch as payments can drag on and cash flows will be slower in the coming months. We will continue to monitor the situation and actively manage risks for our portfolio. “
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