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Validus, a Singapore-based digital SME lending platform, secures $50M debt financing to help enterprises in Indonesia | TechCrunch

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Validus, a Singapore-based digital SME lending platform, secures M debt financing to help enterprises in Indonesia | TechCrunch

Validus, a Singapore-based digital lending platform for small and medium businesses, has secured $50 million in debt financing from HSBC under the ASEAN Growth Fund strategy.

Validus will use the proceeds to support the financial inclusion of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia, addressing the challenges they face in accessing financial resources.

With 64.2 million MSMEs contributing 61% of Indonesia’s GDP, according to Indonesia’s Ministry for Economic Affairs, the potential for growth is immense. These MSMEs employ about 119.6 million people, which is 97% of the total workforce in the country. However, only about 17.5 million MSME players are tapping into the online ecosystem and e-commerce. Indonesian MSMEs face significant challenges in accessing financing, mainly due to commercial banks’ stringent operational, reporting, and collateral requirements, as per a 2017 report by the World Bank. Despite government initiatives, only around 20 percent of bank loans go to MSMEs, the World Bank report said.

Vikas Nahata (Executive Chairman) and Nihkilesh Goel (CEO) co-founded the business in Singapore in 2015. They developed a supply chain-focused lending model that utilized non-traditional data access through partnerships with traditional banks and international institutions. The company has since expanded to include Indonesia (Batumbu), Thailand (Siam Validus), and Vietnam (Validus Vietnam).

“Traditional banks across the SEA region still rely on legacy credit evaluation methods for small businesses, and they are overly reliant on historical financials and real estate-backed collateral,” Goel said. “For a region experiencing GDP growth of 5-6% per annum, small businesses need access to stable and accessible working capital to grow their businesses and contribute to job creation and nation building. This is where Validus plays a major role as the largest digital SME financing provider across ASEAN.”

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Its users are MSMEs, who primarily borrow for their short-term working capital needs, Goel told TechCrunch, while lenders include major international institutions (Citi, HSBC, FMO, Credit Saison, OikoCredit) and leading local banks (CIMB Niaga, Bank Mandiri) across Indonesia and Thailand. Goel mentioned that one of its differentiators is over 100 unique partnerships throughout the Southeast Asia region.

“Validus is the largest SME financing marketplace across the South East Asia region by outstanding loan book or monthly loan disbursals where we are currently averaging $150 million of new loan disbursals per month,” Goel said.

(Left) Vikas Nahata, co-founder and Executive Chairman (Right) Nikhilesh Goel, co-founder and Group CEO
Image Credits: Validus

In the past three years, the startup has experienced growth in both revenue and net profits.

“Over the last three years, we have grown our consolidated Group revenues at a 69% CAGR and more importantly, our Indonesia business, which is our largest market amongst the four countries we operate in – has been net profit positive since 2022 and a source of positive cash flow for the Group,” Goel told TechCrunch. “Our EBITDA margins are over 50% and at a consolidated Group level we are aiming to be cash flow positive by early next year.”

The company has more than 300 staff across five countries, but it did not disclose how many customers it has.

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Its has raised approximately $75 million in total equity funding. Its previous investors include Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, Vertex Growth, FMO, 01Fintech, NongHyup Financial Group, Norinchukin Bank, Aizawa Asset Management, and Lotte F&L.

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Finance

What financial tips do Metro Detroit kids need to know?

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What financial tips do Metro Detroit kids need to know?

STARTING THIS FALL MICHIGAN HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMEN WILL HAVE A NEW CLASS REQUIRMENT THEY’LL NEED TO COMPLETE IN ORDER TO GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL AND THAT’S A PERSONAL FINANCE CLASS THIS NEW REQUIRMENT IS HOPING STUDENTS CAN LEAVE SCHOOL WITH ESSENTIAL SKILLS IN BUDGETING, SAVING, AND INVESTING. THE HOPE ALSO IS THAT THIS YOUNGER GENERATION IN MICHIGAN WON’T HAVE TO FIGURE OUT FINANCIAL ROAD BLOCKS ON THEIR OWN AND THAT THEY CAN BUILD A SECURE FUTURE SEVEN NEWS DETROIT REPORTER PETER MAXWELL SPOKE WITH SEVERAL PEOPLE ABOUT WHAT KIND OF ADVICE THEY COULD SHARE TO THE YOUNGER GENERATION

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AI is too ‘sociopathic’ to give financial advice, MIT researchers say

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AI is too ‘sociopathic’ to give financial advice, MIT researchers say

The problem with AI in the context of it being used as a financial advisor is that it is “inherently sociopathic,” according to a Business Insider article which cited an MIT research report.

Nearly 40% of human financial advisors use generative-AI tools for the job, (Representational image/Pixabay)

Also Read: Japan wants its hardworking citizens to try a 4-day workweek due to labor shortage

Why is AI sociopathic?

While human financial advisors give clients recommendations using a behavioral lens, since people don’t always make rational or unbiased financial decisions, AI can easily argue on both sides of an argument because neither side has any weight to it.

How is AI used by financial advisors at the moment?

Nearly 40% of human financial advisors use generative-AI tools for the job, according to a report from data-analytics firm Escalent, which added that this was mostly for boosting productivity, generating content, and for marketing functions.

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Also Read: New FASTag design launched to crack down on large vehicles using smaller vehicle tags to pay less toll

Examples include Canadian startup Conquest Planning using a financial-planning software with an AI architecture known as a blackboard system for storing information about tax rules, cash-flow mechanics, retirement-account structures, fiduciary rules, and more, according to the article, which added that another example would be Los Angeles-based wealth manager Arynton Hardy, who uses AI regularly to save time on data entry, portfolio monitoring, and other back-office tasks.

How can AI be made more useful for giving financial advice?

A method to make AI more empathetic to the client is by making it ask simple questions like “How are you doing?” before dispensing personalized financial advice, according to Andrew Lo, a professor of finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the director of the Laboratory for Financial Engineering, who co-authored the report.

The AI could also use audio or video from the client to identify emotional cues, like stress or fear, in their voice or facial expressions, he added.

“We think we’re about two or three years away before we can demonstrate a piece of software that by SEC regulatory guidelines will satisfy fiduciary duty,” the article quoted him as saying.

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Also Read: Did the Tatas really have to merge Vistara with Air India?

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Harris's proposed unrealized capital gains tax is unlikely to pass: CIO

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Harris's proposed unrealized capital gains tax is unlikely to pass: CIO

Unrealized capital gains tax proposals may be floating back into the zeitgeist as the Harris presidential campaign marches on, but for some, the noise around it is much ado about nothing.

“I don’t think this unrealized thing is going to have much momentum because it is a very onerous process to come up with those numbers,” Raymond James chief investment officer Larry Adam told Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi on Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid podcast (see video above or listen here).

“You start putting biases of what you think [something] is worth versus the reality,” said Adam. “That becomes a very difficult equation to really put into a place.”

We’ve seen unrealized capital gains tax proposals before, but they’ve met plenty of resistance.

Most recently, the Biden administration proposed an unrealized capital gains tax for those with a net worth of over $100 million. The proposal could affect more than 10,600 people in the US, according to estimates.

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But, unlike a capital gains tax, which is imposed on a sold item, deploying an unrealized capital gains tax is a trickier move.

Stifel chief Washington strategist Brian Gardner said in a recent client note that under an unrealized capital gains tax system, “ranking illiquid assets would not only be complicated but controversial,” adding that there would also need to be a way to provide taxpayers with “rebates for future losses.”

While analysts scratch their heads about the subject, an unrealized capital gains tax also has plenty of tomato throwers. Donald Trump called it “beyond socialism,” telling a crowd of small-business owners, “You will be forced to sell your restaurant immediately.”

Trump’s onetime US Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, concurred.

“Frankly, I think it’s a ridiculous proposal,” Ross said on Opening Bid.

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Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk also had negative statements to share on the topic, proclaiming an unrealized capital gains tax would lead to “bread lines and ugly shoes.”

While Trump and Musk might deliver their messages to pack a wallop and make voters think, concerns aren’t necessarily unfounded.

Raymond James’s Adam has considered tax proposals made by both candidates, and thinks that regardless of the administration in office, higher taxes could impact households by almost $2,000. “[It] could be a big impact and a drag on the economy,” he said.

Both Harris and Trump face challenges given the expiration of a significant portion of the 2017 tax cuts at the end of 2025. Trump has proposed an additional extension of provisions from 2017 and potentially more tax cuts.

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Harris proposed expanding the child tax credit and supported no increase in the capital gains tax, while taxing those making over $400,000 annually more.

While the presidential race is anyone’s game at this point, Adam isn’t that worried about an unrealized capital gains tax and the potential market losses. “[There’s] a low probability of it passing,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to mark to market every single year for your taxes.”

Three times each week, Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi fields insight-filled conversations and chats with the biggest names in business and markets on Opening Bid. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service.

In the below Opening Bid episode, former Trump nominee to the Federal Reserve Judy Shelton shares her outlook for the economy.

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