Fintech is exploding in Hong Kong and the entire APAC region. The latest winner in terms of funding goals is the Hong Kong-based fintech company WeLab that just raised $156 million during its Series C funding round. Some of the investors included the China Construction Bank and Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund.
The Founder and CEO of WeLab, Mr. Simon Loong, commented the following:
This financing will be used to further develop and broaden our platform as a fintech enabler. Further investment into technology research and development, will enable us to apply these innovative technologies around the region to roll out additional products and services for our customers to provide holistic financial services digitally.
WeLab currently provides financial services to over 40 million users in Indonesia, Hong Kong and Mainland China. What WeLab does is analyze unstructured mobile big data in order to provide unique and innovative financial services and financing solutions to individual customers. Apart from the B2C business, WeLab also operates a B2B enterprise business by collaborating with financial institutions that utilize the WeLab’s fintech services.
Investors in the funding of the company are some of the most prominent in the global VC industry including Sequoia Capital, Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, China Construction Bank (International), ING Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
With the investment and in the upcoming year, WeLab aims to develop further and expand the platform as an enabler of fintech within three key targets: launch the WeLab Bank, make its “Privacy Computing” solutions to various enterprises on the platform in the second half of 2020, expand the B2B business in China, and penetrate another South East Asian market besides Indonesia by 2022.
WeLab’s CEO also added that fintech is now in our daily lives due to the technological advancement going forward. Fintech has transformed entirely the world of banking as people around the globe knew it. However, 2020 marks the beginning of a new era for supervision and governance, two points that will directly affect how digital banks are regulated.
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