Hong Kong's WeLab gets $25m credit facility from ING

According to a statement, the loan will provide lending capital for WeLab's Hong Kong business and enable it to meet rapidly growing demand for loans in territory. ING invested in WeLab earlier this year in a $160 million Series B round alongside Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional and Guangdong Technology Financial Group.

The company received a $20 million Series A investment last year from DST Global founder Yuri Milner, Iconiq Capital and a joint venture between China Post and TOM Group. This followed an initial $6 million round from TOM and Sequoia Capital.

"Our ability to close a credit facility with a major international bank is a testament to the strength of WeLab's track record," said Simon Loong, found of WeLab. "We believe this credit facility is one of the first completed by a major bank to fund the portfolio growth of a fintech company in Asia and are confident that this facility will open more doors to institutional funding in the near future."

WeLab provides consumer loans in China and Hong Kong through its China-focused Wolaidai mobile lending platform and its Hong Kong product, WeLend. The company claims to have doubled its business volume in Hong Kong from the first to second quarter of 2016. It has acquired more than seven million registered users and processed $4.6 billion of loan applications since 2013.

ING has framed its commitment to the company as part of an effort to build banking innovations through collaborations with financial technology companies. Last year, it participated in a $135 million round for Kabbage, a US-based company offering a technology and data platform for automated lending to small and medium-sized enterprises.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Financials
• Technology
• Expansion
• China
• Hong Kong (China)
• Financial Services
• Venture
• Growth capital