Jeffrey Liu, co-founder and CEO of Jenfi.
Singapore-based fintech startup Jenfi announced Tuesday that it has raised $6.6 million in a pre-Series B funding round led by Headline Asia, the regional arm of global venture capital firm Headline, best known for its investments in dating app Bumble and luxury web e-commerce site Farfetch.
Returning investors Monk’s Hill Ventures, as well as ICU Ventures, Granite Oak, Korea Investment Partners, Golden Equator Ventures and Atlas Ventures participated in the round. The pre-series B brings the four-year-old Y Combinator graduate’s total funding to $37.9 million.
“We have continuously conducted research on income-based financing and have spoken to almost all players in this field in Asia,” Aki Okamoto, partner at Headline Asia, said in a statement. “Jenfi absolutely stood out to us. Their technology, product, performance and traction are significantly better than their peers.”
Headline Asia was a prominent supporter of last year’s Forbes Asia 100 on the watch listwith three featured portfolio companies: Vietnamese wealth management platform Finhay, Philippine logistics startup Inteluck and Singaporean mental health company Intellect.
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Under a model the startup calls “growth capital as a service,” Jenfi makes loans of up to $1 million to online businesses, such as e-commerce and SaaS brands, for a fixed percentage of their monthly revenue. Non-dilutive capital can be used for marketing campaigns and inventory management. Since its launch in 2019, Jenfi claims to have deployed more than $25 million in over 600 companies, including health content agency Hello Health and telecommuting tool Bolton Remote.
A fast loan approval turnaround – with funds disbursed immediately after the first application – is enabled by an automated risk assessment engine. The startup claims its underwriting and credit monitoring uses granular data from each company, from sources such as accounting software Xero, e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and advertising tools from Google and Facebook.
“We are honored to be backed by such a distinguished group of investors as we strive to push the boundaries of innovation in the fintech lending industry,” said Jeffrey Liu, co-founder and CEO, in a statement about the latest funding. With the fresh capital, Jenfi aims to improve the speed and accuracy of its credit underwriting and risk assessment tools, while expanding its client base in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Southeast Asian founders are increasingly targeting the region’s new fintech space. Last September, Hong Kong-based fintech unicorn WeLab acquired Indonesia Bank Jasa Jakarta together with Astra International from Jardine Matheson Business Group, targeting Indonesia’s underdeveloped digital banking market. Last June, Finhay raised a $25 million Series B funding round led by Singapore-based Openspace Ventures for further expansion in Vietnam. In the same month, Philippine financial management app Lista raised a $5.1 Series A funding round, also led by Openspace Ventures.
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Forbes – Business