Hong Kong's WeLab raises $220m
Alibaba Group and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have led a Series B+ round of funding for Hong Kong financial technology provider WeLab.
The investment, along with a debt financing component, totals $220 million and brings the company’s total funding to date to $425 million. Alibaba invested via its Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, which is part of the technology conglomerate’s HK$1 billion ($128 million) program for helping Greater China start-ups expand overseas.
It extends a $160 million Series B commitment led by Malaysian government-backed investor Khazanah Nasional last year. The company received $20 million in 2015 from a group including Sequoia Capital, DST Global founder Yuri Milner, Iconiq Capital and a joint venture between China Post and TOM Group. Previous investors also include ING Bank, which extended the company a $25 million credit facility last year.
Founded in Hong Kong in 2013 by a team of senior professionals from financial institutions including Standard Chartered, HSBC, and Goldman Sachs, WeLab aims to disrupt the traditional credit services space by creating a seamless online and mobile lending solution for the Asian market. Services encompass mobile lending, loan processing and big data-enabled credit analysis.
The company claims to have processed $28 billion in loans and established a user base of 25 million in Hong Kong and China. It plans to use the fresh capital for technology development as well as an expansion of both its product portfolio and geographic footprint beyond Greater China.
“WeLab has demonstrated its ability to effectively make credit decisions based on non-traditional, but otherwise reliable data, for millions of Chinese borrowers without prior credit history,” Andi Dervishi, fintech investment group head at IFC, said in a statement. “We believe the firm’s strategic partnership with banks will result in a sustainable competitive advantage to the company.”
The Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund was established in November 2015 as a not-for-profit initiative to support qualifying local businesses. Recent investments include genetic testing start-up Prenetics, bike sharing player Gobee Bike and financial services platform CompareAsiaGroup, which has also received backing from IFC.
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