Old Meets New As Hong Kong’s WeLab Raises $75 Million From Allianz

WeLab, an Asian FinTech, has closed a Series C funding round and will come away with $75 million, according to a press release.

The round was led by Allianz X, the digital investment arm of German-based Allianz Group, one of the world’s biggest insurers and asset managers, the release stated.

WeLab and Allianz have also formed a strategic investment to help drive collaboration. The new funding, according to the release, will work to bolster the acceleration of the WeLab growth strategy and expansion of digital financial services in Asia.

With the investment and new partnerships, WeLab is looking at combining its digital banking technology with Allianz’s expertise in insurance and asset management to help boost peoples’ financial well-being, the release stated.

The partnership will include the debut of digital wealth management in Asia with AllianzGI, which will provide the help for billions of underbanked in the region who need financial management. WeLab Bank, once implemented, will be the first digital bank to uphold those kinds of technologies in Asia. The services will be rolled out first in Hong Kong, and then later to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), according to the release.

In addition, the partnership will help WeLab reach into other markets where Allianz operates, including in Southeast Asia, the release stated.

WeLab Founder and CEO Simon Loong said in the release that the company is 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 said, according to the release.

China has tightened its regulations on over-lending, targeting firms like Ant Group and Tencent. These big firms will now have to share more consumer lending data, and online lending platforms will now have to feed their consumer data into nationwide credit agencies.