Qupital, a Hong Kong-based financing platform for cross-border e-commerce sellers, announced it has raised US$150 million in a combination of Series B equity funding and a receivables-backed securitisation facility.
The Series B round was led by the Greater Bay Area Homeland Development Fund (GBA Homeland), with additional capital injections from investors including the Innovation and Technology Venture Fund (ITVF) of the Hong Kong SAR Government, MindWorks Capital, Silverhorn and Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund.
The majority of funds raised will be used to accelerate Qupital’s core lending business to support e-commerce sellers.
As part of its five-year plan, the company is set to tap into its network and grow its “buy now, pay later” product model to build an all-encompassing marketplace tailored for B2B transactions.
It will assign resources to enhance its R&D capabilities in terms of artificial intelligence, big-data technology and MLOps.
The company also has plans to extend its footprint across mainland China, as well as international markets including Southeast Asia, North America and Europe.
It expects to triple the size of its team by 2022 to support expansion needs.
Meanwhile, the securitisation facility entered with global investment bank Citi, supported by Integrated Alternative Credit Fund.
According to Qupital, this marks the first e-commerce merchant financing securitisation in Asia.
Qupital harnesses the power of sales data to streamline credit underwriting for sellers on e commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Lazada and Shopee.
As of October 2021, Qupital said that it has achieved over US$500 million in loan advancement to some 7,000 merchants onboarded on its digital platform, tracking an annualised gross merchandise value (GMV) of over US$3 billion.
“The GBA comprises multiple world-class manufacturing bases, where goods are produced and capital needs arise; this is where we step in as a solution to bridge the financing demand gap.
It also reaffirms the unparalleled role of Hong Kong as an international financial hub – where innovations are met with opportunities to flourish.”
said Winston Wong, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Qupital.
