SINGAPORE – Fintech company Kredivo Holdings has raised about US$270 million (S$358 million) in equity financing, defying a market correction that has made it difficult for many start-ups to obtain fresh capital.
The Singapore-based firm, the operator of fintech platform Kredivo and Krom Bank Indonesia, struck a deal for financing led by Mizuho Financial Group, it said in a statement on Thursday without disclosing its valuation. Existing investors including Square Peg Capital, Jungle Ventures and Naver also participated in the Series D round.
Kredivo’s round is the biggest announced in Asia since Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse shocked the start-up ecosystem earlier in March.
The fund raising shows that some start-ups are still finding capital even as the venture industry grapples with rising interest rates, elevated inflation and a tech downturn. Investors, once thrilled to write cheques, are becoming more choosy and are doling out less favourable terms.
Last year, Kredivo, formerly known as FinAccel, sought funding at a US$1.5 billion pre-money valuation after its planned merger with a blank-cheque company collapsed. Prior to that, it had reached a valuation of about US$2 billion.
The company, whose services include buy-now-pay-later financing, will use the funds to build up its presence in offline stores and expand into Indonesia’s highly competitive digital banking space, Mr Abhijay Sethia, head of strategy at Kredivo, said in an interview.
The region’s fintech players are aggressively expanding their suite of financial service products in Indonesia, a country of about 273 million people where many have limited access to bank accounts and credit cards. Kredivo has offered consumer loans and payments for seven years, giving it an advantage against competitors from industries such as e-commerce, ride-hailing and gaming, Mr Sethia said.
“What Indonesians need at this point in time is access to credit, which is what they have severely lacked for years,” he said.
Kredivo’s peer, Ant Group-backed Akulaku, has a stake in Jakarta-based Bank Neo Commerce, while Singapore’s Sea acquired Bank BKE in 2021 to gain a foothold in the fintech arena.
Ride-hailing and food-delivery platform Grab Holdings teamed up with Singtel to buy a minority stake in Bank Fama – now Super Bank Indonesia – while rival Gojek in 2021 spent about US$160 million to raise its holding in Bank Jago. BLOOMBERG
