Hong Kong's Qupital secures $150m Series B
Hong Kong B2B financial technology provider Qupital has raised a $150 million Series B round led by Greater Bay Area Homeland Development Fund.
MindWorks Capital, Silverhorn Group, and Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund also participated, alongside Innovation & Technology Venture Fund, a Hong Kong government vehicle.
The funding includes a securitization facility component entered with Citi and supported by Integrated Alternative Credit Fund. It is said to represent the first e-commerce merchant financing securitization in Asia.
Qupital claims to be the largest online financing platform for small to medium-sized enterprises in Hong Kong and aims to be the leading digital financial institution for e-commerce sellers globally.
It will use the fresh equity to scale its cross-border e-commerce lending business into mainland China, Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe with a focus on buy now, pay later services. The securitization facility will help lower the cost of products offered to clients.
The expansion will also include a technology build-out with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and predictive analytics. Qupital expects to triple the size of its team by 2022.
The company, founded in 2016, has achieved more than $500 million in loan advancement to some 7,000 merchants on its digital platform to date, tracking an annualized gross merchandise value of around $3 billion as of October. Clients include Amazon, eBay, Lazada, and Shopee.
Qupital raised $15 million in 2019 in a Series A led by CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund with participation from MindWorks and Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund. MindWorks, DRL Capital, Gobi Partners, and The Aria Group provided $2 million in seed funding in 2017.
“This funding round reinstates the boundless synergy agglomerated in the region. The GBA [Greater Bay Area] comprises multiple world-class manufacturing bases, where goods are produced and capital needs arise; this is where we step in as a solution to bridge the financing demand gap,” Winston Wong, co-founder and CEO of Qupital, said in a statement
“It also reaffirms the unparalleled role of Hong Kong as an international financial hub – where innovations are met with opportunities to flourish. We believe Hong Kong will continue to play an indispensable role within the GBA as a financial powerhouse.”
The government-backed GBA Homeland Fund was launched in late 2018 to raise up to HK$30 billion ($3.8 billion) for private equity investments in the region. The focus is on high-tech industries and setting up laboratories and research centers in Hong Kong, as well as consolidating the territory’s competitive edge in medical technology and AI.
More on Greater China
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.