FinTech Startup Qupital Raises $15M For Chinese Expansion

FinTech startup Qupital announced that it has closed a $15 million Series A, led by CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund (CEFIF).

The funding also had participation from Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and MindWorks Ventures following their initial investments in the company’s seed round.

“The growing volume of SME [small and medium-sized enterprise] and cross-border trading drives a huge demand for alternative financing for SMEs that are underserved in the market and opportunities for investors to earn a decent risk-adjusted return,” Dennis Cong, PhD, Managing Director of CEFIF, said in a press release. “We look forward to working with Qupital to broaden its source of capital base and create unparalleled investment opportunities for CreditEase. We will be working with Qupital to further utilize the technologies to enhance risk management, user experience and operational efficiency”.

Qupital will use the funds to expand its presence in mainland China, as well as boost their technology development and risk management teams, and strengthen its cross-border eCommerce expansion.

“We are pleased to witness the rapid growth of Qupital, from a local Hong Kong startup to a well-organized corporate team in the region,”said Cindy Chow, Executive Director at the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund. “Through this follow-on round of financing and the business opportunities that Alibaba Group has facilitated, we have confidence in the future success of Qupital.”

Just last year Alibaba enhanced its relationship with Qupital, allowing its small business sellers that are members of the platform’s Gold Supplier program to be linked to invoice financing via Qupital.

In addition, the partnership aimed to bridge Qupital customers to Alibaba deals and promotional offers to expand their reach to corporate buyers on the Alibaba site.

“We are thrilled with the opportunity to extend Qupital’s financing solution to our Hong Kong customers and enable the use of our platform’s insights to help ease their cash flow challenge,” said Alibaba.com Hong Kong Business Director Rick Ng in a statement at the time. “This collaboration will be a strong addition to the network of support services that we are building for our SME customers.”