Atinum leads $9m round for Korean fintech player

Tera focuses on peer-to-peer (P2P) transaction services, which is recognized as the fastest growing fintech market in Korea. The investment is said to be the largest Korean Series A round in this segment to date.

Additional participants included SBI Investment, Premier Partners and Woori Bank. The company has raised KRW11.2 billion in total, with previous backers including Bon Angels Venture Partners. The fresh capital will be used to hire new staff with a view to improving the risk management processes.

"We have been very committed to risk management from the beginning of our business three years ago as protecting investors' interest is one of the most important values we pursue,” Tae-young Yang (pictured), CEO of Tera, said in a statement.

Founded in 2014, Tera claims to operate Korea’s leading real estate P2P lending platform with a 0% default rate. The company has managed KRW240.8 billion in loans to date and recorded an average return rate of 12.4% with arrears standing at 0.3%.

P2P transfer has emerged as a key driver of Korea’s growing fintech ecosystem although the segment is perceived to be troubled by rising defaults and arrears. Recent activity includes an $8.6 million round for P2P lending start-up 8percent backed by SBI, and a $48 million investment in Viva Republica, which operates a mobile money transfer app said to be 10 times larger than all its competitors combined.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Early-stage
• South Korea
• SBI Holdings
• TMT
• Financial Services
• Real estate