P2P lender Validus Capital clinches $20.5m in oversubscribed Series B round

The funding proceeds will be used to enhance its AI and machine learning capabilities.

Peer-to-peer lending platform Validus Capital racked in $20.5m (US$15.2m) in an oversubscribed Series B funding round, an announcement revealed.

With the fresh funding, Validus said it is looking to invest heavily in technology innovation, particularly around artificial intelligence and machine learning to help make business financing even more convenient and safe for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It will also fund their Southeast Asia expansion, which will begin in Indonesia in 2019, followed by Vietnam.

According to a report by Deloitte, SMEs contribute around 40% of Southeast Asia's gross domestic product (GDP) and employ 70% of the region's workforce. Despite the importance of SMEs regionally, support is generally lacking, particularly in terms of business financing, the firms highlighted in a statement.

Investment in Validus' Series B round was reportedly led by Netherlands' public-private development bank FMO, which has over 300 investments in banking and financial services institutions (BFSIs). Its investment in Validus is said to mark FMO's first fintech investment in Southeast Asia, a region which saw over US$5.7bin fintech investments in 2017, data from KPMG showed.

Participating investors also included Taiwan's Cathay Financial Holdings, Singapore's Openspace Ventures (previously NSI Ventures), Temasek investment arm Vertex Ventures, Thailand's AddVentures by SCG and Vietnam's VinaCapital Ventures.