Heaptalk, Jakarta — Singapore’s financing platform, Validus, bags new injection worth US$20 million from a growth stage private equity firm, 01Fintech. This investment will enable this fintech startup to accelerate its expansion plans in Indonesia, enhance its technology, and solidify its position in supply chain financing.
“This investment is a significant milestone for us. The in-depth due diligence 01Fintech has done has shown its deep domain expertise and willingness to identify growth areas to bring the company to the next level. We continue to stay focused on our mission of providing more accessible financial products and services to SMEs across Southeast Asia, and we look forward to a successful collaboration that will continue to drive innovation in supply chain financing,” voiced the Co-Founder and Group CEO of Validus, Nikhilesh Goel.
Southeast Asia represents a tremendous SME financing gap opportunity at US$490 billion for specialized digital lenders with strong credit assessment capabilities. The Asian Development Bank estimates MSMEs makeup 97% of all regional enterprises, employ 69% of the labor force, and contribute 42% of the GDP.
Nevertheless, the company observed that they still have access to sufficient credit and liquidity for their daily working capital needs. Over 60% of these private enterprises cannot get loans when needed. Moreover, operators and their employees are also forced to live cash-in-hand, creating a growth bottleneck.
Validus’s focus on addressing the unmet financing needs of SMEs aligns with 01Fintech’s mission of supporting financial technologies that enhance inclusion for the under-banked and under-served communities. With its peculiar strategic ecosystem partnership model with brand owners, conglomerates, and public companies across SEA, this startup aims to provide financing services for upstream SME suppliers and downstream buyers.
These partners provide critical proprietary supply chain data to Validus, which will continuously improve its risk underwriting models and algorithms, a unique strength that similar companies do not have.
“This investment reflects our conviction in the team’s capabilities and passion to address a huge pain point facing SMEs in Southeast Asia and its vision to be the number one supply chain financing service provider in the region,” The Managing Partner of 01Fintech, Kenny Man, conveyed.
Since its inception in 2015, Validus has disbursed more than US$3 billion in loans to small businesses across Southeast Asia. Despite the current macroeconomic turbulence, Validus has delivered outstanding growth, showing positive upward trends across all key performance metrics, including 50% revenue growth and a 40% decrease in losses this year.
