China Rapid Finance, China’s online consumer lending marketplace serving online users and China’s emerging middle class, today announced an initial closing of $35 million in its Series C round of financing at a pre-money valuation of US $1 billion. The round was led by Broadline Capital, a global private equity firm, and joined by a prominent global family office through UBS Investment Bank as well as other investors.
Zane Wang, PhD, Founder and CEO of China Rapid Finance, shared:
“We welcome the substantial financial and strategic support of Broadline Capital and our other investors – new and old. There are an estimated 500 million consumers in China who are economically active but never have had access to bank credit. This latest funding will be used to pursue our goal of socially inclusive finance by accelerating the expansion of our online consumer lending marketplace to the most creditworthy individuals.
“Over the past year, China Rapid Finance has pioneered an end-to-end automated, mobile-based lending service designed to revolutionize the Chinese consumer lending industry and facilitate credit access to China’s vastly untapped market – an estimated 500 million creditworthy people. To date, more than 2.5 million cumulative loans have been achieved, doubling in the last three months. Our robust growth was achieved with significantly low borrower acquisition costs, demonstrating both the exceedingly strong demand for our services as well as the unique scalability of our marketplace offering.”
In February, the company partnered with Tencent, one of the largest Internet companies in the world, to introduce the first-ever pre-approved loans to pre-screened users on its ubiquitous social platforms. The recent funding will allow China Rapid Finance to spread the reach of its marketplace and attract more potential borrowers, including through strategic partnerships with multiple consumer data sources including leading Chinese Internet companies, potentially adding hundreds of millions of candidates for our service.
Christopher Thorne, Founder and Chairman of Broadline Capital, added:
“We are pleased to lead this pivotal financing round and further fuel the growth of China Rapid Finance. Broadline Capital is dedicated to collaborating with leading innovators like CEO Zane Wang – companies and entrepreneurs who revolutionize industries and become either category leaders or category creators. In the case of China Rapid Finance, Zane Wang and his team have created a unique marketplace to address the burgeoning consumer credit demands of China’s emerging middle class – the world’s largest untapped market.”
UBS Investment Bank acted as placement agent for China Rapid Finance on the Series C Preferred Financing.