China’s Dianrong raises additional $70m for Series D
Chinese peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform Dianrong has raised an additional $70 million in Series D funding, taking the total round to $290 million.
The latest investment was led by Orix Asia Capital, a unit of Japanese financial group Orix Corporation. It was joined by CLSA, a Hong Kong-based overseas investment platform owned by China’s CITIC Securities. This entity is separate from CLSA Capital Partners.
The investment follows a $220 million Series D round raised in August last year, led by Singapore’s GIC Private. Dianrong’s Series C round closed in 2015 with participation from Standard Chartered Private Equity and China Fintech Fund. Investors from earlier rounds include Tiger Global Management, AMTD, Nothern Light Venture Capital and Max Giant.
The Dianrong platform – which connects individual lenders and small businesses – was founded in 2012 by Soul Htite, and Kevin Guo, an intellectual property lawyer. The company differs from many Chinese P2P practitioners in that it is purely an intermediary, sourcing borrowers and then putting them in front of prospective lenders rather than behaving like a bank without a proper license.
The company has expanded into different services over the past few years, providing customize lending and borrowing products. As of December, Dianrong facilitated more than RMB47 million ($7.4 billion) in loans from over four million lenders.
Following the latest investment, Dianrong hopes to collaborate with Orix and CITIC Securities in China and across the region, with a view to leveraging financial technology to better serve the financial needs of small businesses, Htite said in a statement.
Several Chinese financial technology companies completed IPOs in the US last year. They include micro-lending services providers Qudian and LexinFintech, consumer finance marketplace PPDai, and Jianpu Technology, a subsidiary of financial products search and recommendation platform Rong360. Dianrong was reportedly considering an IPO this year.
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