Nikhilesh Goel | Tatler Asia | A Startup Founder's Guide To Fundraising In 2023

*This article first appears on *Tatler Asia.

‘Funding winter’ and ‘recession’ are two terms that we have heard countless times over the past year, emphasizing the recent change that has created a challenging environment for startups looking for their next fundraise. At our recent annual Founders Day, Validus founder Nikhilesh Goel addressed our Vertex community of Founders with key learnings and tips for raising funds amidst uncertain times.

Validus, a comprehensive SME financing platform for small businesses, just completed its series C1 fundraising round during this slow fundraising climate - a celebratory milestone. However, the journey to where they are today, having disbursed USD 2 billion in loans across Southeast Asia, and being on track to achieve profitability by 2024 was no easy feat. Prior to Validus, Nikhilesh has worked in Private Equity and also led a corporate advisory business raising funds for consumer and tech business across ASEAN. He had also worked in M&A and raised funds for a listed company. Even so, fundraising for Validus wasn’t a walk in the park.

We at Vertex Ventures SE Asia & India (VVSEAI) have backed Validus since their early days, and have been witness to the various challenges they had to tackle in order to grow while bringing value to investors.

“You cannot take swimming tips from someone who is not in the same sea as you right now,” shared Nikhilesh, emphasizing that while certain fundraising advice is universal, always be discerning about taking learnings from another founder. To triumph in fundraising, there are a few activities that founders cannot outsource- start building the war chest early.

Key Learnings from Raising Series C

Tips for Founders On Fundraising

Read the rest of the article on Tatler Asia here.

About Validus

Founded in 2015 to address the unmet financing needs of SMEs, Validus is Southeast Asia’s leading SME growth financing platform. In 2022, Validus has expanded beyond lending solutions to become ASEAN’s first SME-focused, full-suite financial services provider, with an offering that includes business account, corporate cards, payments and expense management. Validus is headquartered in Singapore and is growing rapidly across its four markets – Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. An award-winning FinTech, Validus uses alternative data and AI-driven data analytics to drive growth financing to the underserved SME sector via funds from individual and institutional investors. Validus holds a Capital Markets Services License by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and is also licensed by Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) in Indonesia and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Thailand. For more information, please visit validus.sg.

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