Venturra leads $26m round for Philippines' First Circle

Other investors include Insignia Ventures Partners, Silverhorn Investment Advisors, and Tryb Group. The capital will support a domestic expansion with a view to extending operations regionally in the medium term.

First Circle provides supply chain and trade financing services to SMEs with no prior credit history that contend with development headwinds related to operating in pre-internet economic ecosystems. The company says its wholly digital business model allows it to reduce approval times to five hours, regardless of prior credit history.

“What sold us on First Circle was their unique risk-management capabilities,” Stefan Jung, a managing partner at Venturra, said in a statement. “They’re doing the hard things really well which enable them to keep prices low for customers, and at the same time deliver attractive, consistent returns for their funding partners.”

The investment comes as the Philippines rolls out a number of initiatives to support the SME sector, including a law that allows assets other than land to be used as collateral, a government assistance program for entrepreneurs, and a push for greater adoption of digital channels. The credit gap for business owners in the country is said to be around $50 billion.

Indonesia-based Venturra invests early-stage companies across a range of technology-related sectors in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. Its debut fund closed at $150 million in 2015 with a focus on Series A and later-stage deals. A separate vehicle aimed at seed investments, known as Venturra Discovery, has subsequently been launched.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Support services
• Early-stage
• Philippines
• Venturra Partners
• Financial Services
• SME