FinTech WeLab Considers $250M Funding Round for APAC Expansion

Hong Kong-based lending FinTech WeLab is reportedly considering a new funding round that could value the company at about $2 billion.

The company hopes to raise $200 million to $250 million during the round to accelerate its growth and has sought input from new and existing investors, Bloomberg reported Monday (Nov. 21), citing unnamed sources.

WeLab’s backers include Sequoia Capital and Li Ka-shing, a billionaire investor and business magnate, the report stated.

The company, which operates consumer credit platforms WeLend in Hong Kong and WeLab Digital in mainland China, has experienced 1.5 times year-over-year growth in its loan balance in Hong Kong since the pandemic began, according to the report.

“Whilst we cannot confirm the quoted numbers as we are a private company, what we can share is we are considering a new round of financing to accelerate growth,” a WeLab spokesperson told PYMNTS late Monday.

Last year, the company raised $75 million in a Series C round led by Allianz X, the digital investment branch of Germany’s Allianz Group.

WeLab Founder and CEO Simon Loong said at the time that the company was looking forward to “expanding WeLab’s geographical presence and bringing our technology into these new markets with Allianz.”

“We will be expediting our hiring this year, aiming to add around 100 hires, as investing in people and culture will be key to support future growth,” he added.

Since then, the company has acquired the Indonesian commercial bank, PT Bank Jasa Jakarta, in what it said was the largest merger/acquisition in the region this year, Bloomberg reported.

The round comes one week after reports that Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance — the consumer finance unit of China-based Ant Group — is planning to raise the equivalent of $1.5 billion in new capital to help its loan operation.

That target is lower than the previously reported plans to raise more than $3 billion after a large state-backed investor backed away from the deal. Ant will contribute to the funding round along with seven other companies.

Ant Group launched Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance last year, and the personal lending business now has registered capital that adds up to the equivalent of $1.1 billion.