Validus secures first tranche in Series C-1 round with investment from major East Asian strategic investors
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Validus secures first tranche in Series C-1 round with investment from major East Asian strategic investors
- Key strategic investors in Validus’ Series C-1 round include major East Asian players NongHyup Financial Group, NorinChukin Bank, Aizawa Asset Management and Lotte F&L Singapore, alongside Validus’ existing lead investors across all prior equity rounds.
- Validus has recently launched its no-fee, all-in-one business account for SMEs and startups in Singapore. It has seen promising traction and expects to onboard more than 1,000 customers and process more than S$30 million in monthly transaction volume by the end of December 2022.
- Validus Group has grown its monthly loan volumes by over 5x and its loan book by 3.5x in the last 24 months.
- Validus Group has disbursed over USD 2 billion in loans across Southeast Asia, and is on track to achieve profitability by 2024. Its largest market, Indonesia, where it operates under the Batumbu brand, is already profitable, becoming the first SME crowdfunding platform to achieve this milestone in the market to date.
SINGAPORE, 16 December 2022 – Validus today announced that it has secured its first tranche of funds in a Series C-1 round with new, key strategic investors NongHyup Financial Group, NorinChukin Bank, Aizawa Asset Management and Lotte F&L Singapore.
Validus’ early investors – Vertex Ventures SEA & India, Vertex Growth Fund, FMO and VinaCapital Ventures – from previous fundraising rounds were also amongst the investors participating in this Series C-1 up-round, signaling continued confidence in the company’s results, growth trajectory and expansion plans.
Validus Co-founder and Group CEO Nikhilesh Goel says, “Against the backdrop of a challenging macroeconomic and fundraising environment, Validus has continued to deliver quality growth, and we’re seeing positive upward trends across all key performance metrics – loan book size, revenue and profitability – even as we keep a tight lid on operating expenses.”
Nikhilesh adds, “As a group, we have proven that we have a clear path to profitability, and we’re on track to breakeven by 2024, with individual markets progressively achieving this milestone. We’re heartened to have the support of our new and existing investors, and the new funds will be directed towards further product and services development, with a focus on enabling small businesses with faster and more convenient digital financing solutions.”
Kijung Kwon, Managing Director at NH Absolute Return Partners highlights “We like Validus’ unique business model as an SME lending platform since they have been creating value to SMEs that are playing in the supply chains of the conglomerates and public companies in the region. Validus has been successfully showing sequential loan growth as well as soundness of loan portfolio which is not easy to achieve”, and he adds “our group anticipates the potential opportunities for cooperation in the lending business in Southeast Asia.”
Hiroki Kawabata, Senior Manager, Digital Innovation Division, NorinChukin Bank says, “Validus has been in the forefront of providing full-fledged digital financing service to underserved SMEs in Southeast Asia, enabling better access to capital and financial solutions, and driving financial inclusion across the region. We are thrilled to announce our investment in Validus and excited to work with the strong team and embark on our collaboration going forward.”
Genping Liu, Partner, Vertex Ventures SEA & India says, "The SMEs in Southeast Asia form the backbone of the economy, yet business owners constantly face critical issues such as a lack of access to credit and liquidity issues. Validus has been leading the push for financial inclusion in the region by providing much-needed financing relief to SMEs, such as collateral-free financing options and liquidity through access to a pool of investors. As one of Validus’ earliest backers, we have witnessed impressive growth and innovation from the team, including multiple strategic partnerships to expand their offerings. We are proud to be able to support Validus in their mission to be a key driver for SME growth in the region."
Validus recently launched its no-fee business account for SMEs and startups in Singapore, delivering productivity and cost savings for small businesses with its unlimited 1% cashback on all corporate card spend, zero fee FX services, and monthly cashback on FAST payments.
Validus Co-founder and Executive Chairman Vikas Nahata says, “We’re building on our strong foothold in SME lending, and our leading position as a credit-led, one-stop financing solutions provider for SMEs is paying off. We are seeing strong traction on our business account with existing and new customers. Customers have given us good feedback on the simplicity of use and speed, and this is evidenced by the fact that we’re seeing extremely healthy growth in gross transaction value (GTV) within only a few weeks of our soft launch in August 2022. We expect to have more than 1,000 customers and process more than S$30 million in monthly transaction volume by Dec 2022.”
Validus continues to deliver impact in its efforts to make digital financing more accessible and inclusive for small businesses. In recognition of its first-in-industry automated working capital product which underwrites a loan in just one minute, using only two documents and enabled by alternative data and AI, Validus was awarded the first runner-up prize in the “Singapore FinTech (Singapore Founder)” category at this year’s SFF Global FinTech Awards.
Validus also announced the appointment of Vishal Shah as Group Chief Operating Officer. Vishal joined Validus in January 2022 as President of Emerging Markets. In his new capacity as Group COO, his expanded responsibilities include the Group’s business performance, as well as Product & Innovation, Risk and Data & Analytics.
Since its establishment in 2015, Validus has disbursed more than USD 2 billion in loans to small businesses in Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. The company is backed by highly reputed VCs including Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, Vertex Growth, FMO, AddVentures by SCG, K3 Ventures, Openspace Ventures and VinaCapital Ventures.
About Validus Group
Validus Group (“Validus”) is the leading all-in-one SME financing platform in Southeast Asia today. Validus drives financial inclusion and prosperity for small businesses by leveraging data and AI to drive growth financing to the under-served SME sector – resulting in faster and effortless one-stop financial solutions that increase our customers’ productivity and cost savings. Validus’ SME-focused, full-suite business finance offering includes loans, business accounts, corporate cards, payments and expense management. To date, Validus has disbursed more than USD 2 billion1 in loans to small businesses across Southeast Asia.
Founded in 2015 to address the unmet financing needs of SMEs, Validus is headquartered in Singapore and is growing rapidly across its four markets – Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In Singapore, Validus holds a Capital Markets Services License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Batumbu (Validus Indonesia) is licensed by Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) in Indonesia, and Siam Validus is licensed by Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in Thailand. For more information, please visit validus.sg.
*Figures are as of December 1, 2022
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