Vision Knight leads $153m round for China’s Weidai
Vision Knight Capital has led a $1 billion ($153 million) Series C round of funding for Weidai, a Chinese peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform that specializes on providing auto loans.
China Securities and A-share listed company Dong Yi RI Shen Home Decoration Group also participated in the round. This represents Vision Knight's first investment in China's online finance sector.
Launched in 2011, Weidai allows individual lenders to provide mortgage loans to car owners. Borrowers can put up their used cars as collateral for loans to buy new vehicles. The start-up has also opened more than 160 offline shops to support its online operation. As of January, the platform had issued RMB22.6 billion in loans.
Shanda Capital, Shenzhen-listed Hakim Information and Zhe Shang VC invested in a Series A round for Weidai in 2014, while Hakim provided an additional RMB150 million in Series B funding last year.
The company plans to use the new capital to expand its services in auto finance, such as automobile after-sale services and auto insurance. It is also looking at expanding into other online lending categories, including real estate, consumer finance and supply chain finance.
Other auto lending platforms that have received backing from VC and strategic investors include Chedai.com, Licaifan and Meili Jinrong.
More on Greater China
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.