
Japan SME fintech player raises $17m

Japan’s Olta, a financial technology provider for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has raised JPY 2.5bn (USD 17.6m) in Series B funding featuring SBI Investment, Spiral Capital, and DG Ventures.
WingArc1st, AG Capital, Delight Ventures, Tottori Capital, Nobunaga Capital Village, BIG Impact, and Aozora Corporate Investment also participated.
They were joined by the likes of Okazaki Shinkin Bank, Chikuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, credit card issuer JCB, and Yamauchi No.10 Family Office, which was launched by the founding family of Nintendo.
It follows a JPY 1.8bn round in 2019 featuring SBI as well as Jafco, Beenext Capital, and Shinsei Bank. Previous investors also include Japan Post Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Mizuho Bank, and Shokou, an insurance, real estate, and investment unit of Chikuho. Total funding to date comes to JPY 5.7bn.
Olta specialises in invoice factoring automation technology that allows SMEs to respond to short-term working capital needs. The core service is to purchase companies’ outstanding invoices via a cloud-supported credit screening process that can be completed within 24 hours. There is a commission of up to 9% at the time of purchase.
The fresh capital will be used to build out the latest offering in this area, a platform called Invoy, which is currently used by about 100,000 small businesses, including freelancers. There are also plans to move into adjacent operational areas, including billion support functions and invoice-related data services.
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