Oriente, the Hong Kong-based financial services and technology company announced today that it had completed a US$ 105 million initial funding round. This included investment from the founders and a group of family offices including members of the Berjaya Group, JG Summit Holdings, Inc., and Sinar Mas.
The financing is used to accelerate technology and product development, scale multi-market operations, and power the growth of Oriente’s digital solutions into new markets, and has its eye on Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies.
Oritente uses technology like Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and data science, to build solutions that provide real-time credit scoring, digital and O2O lending, and other tailored financial services to millions in Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies. The company now has over 1200 employees across offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Manila, Jakarta, and Ho Chi Minh City.
It was founded by a team that includes Geoff Prentice, one of Skype’s co-founders who helped oversee the platform’s expansion in Asia, and Hubert Tai, who was a CTO at Lufax.
Prior to the funding, Oriente was already looking at expansion across different Southeast Asian regions. Oriente invested in and rolled out mobile-first ventures in the Philippines (Cashalo) and Indonesia (Finmas), aimed at delivering affordable credit to the underserved in the emerging middle class, and SMEs.
Featured image via JG Summit Holdings, Inc.
