Validus raises US$30 million Series D round led by Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah

[SINGAPORE] Validus, a startup that lends to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has raised a US$30 million Series D funding round led by Khazanah Nasional, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund.

The funding will be used to fuel growth in Validus’ core markets of Thailand and Indonesia, including hiring and technology investments. This includes investing further in the automation of its integrated supply-chain financing platform, Nikhilesh Goel, co-founder and group chief executive of Validus, told The Business Times.

Some of the capital will also be used to support debt-raising to grow the loan book to feed a financing pipeline of US$300 million from institutional investors.

“This partnership will significantly advance our mission to drive financial inclusion and economic prosperity across South-east Asia,” noted Goel.

This comes after Validus divested its Singapore business to GXS Bank in April, making Indonesia and Thailand the immediate focus for the startup. It is aiming to consolidate its position in these markets.

There will be efforts to deepen the penetration of supply-chain financing across sectors centred on middle-class consumption in Indonesia and Thailand.

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Validus matches SMEs’ supply-chain financing needs to its pool of institutional investors, and has disbursed more than US$5 billion in loans to date. The fintech startup primarily works with major corporates in offering supply-chain financing to SMEs within their supplier ecosystem.