WeLab, a Hong Kong-based fintech company, announced last week it has secured a credit facility of $25 million from ING Bank as part of its expansion and enable the company to meet rapidly growing demand for its loans in Hong Kong.
Sharing details about the credit facility, WeLab founder and CEO Simon Loong, stated:
“Our ability to close a credit facility with a major international bank is a testament to the strength of WeLab’s track record. We believe this credit facility is one of the first completed by a major bank to fund the portfolio growth of a fintech company in Asia and are confident that this facility will open more doors to institutional funding in the near future. WeLab has redefined consumer lending in Hong Kong and China by combining big data analytics and cutting-edge credit profiling technology to create a fast, easy and accessible mobile approval process,”
ING Bank Hong Kong’s managing director of corporate clients, Shalini Sujanani, commented:
“ING Bank is an avid advocate for and a leader in financial services innovation. Our investment in WeLab is in line with our strategy for constant innovation and building the bank of the future. We therefore look forward to opportunities of further collaboration.”
The credit facility comes less than nine months after WeLab raised $160 million during a Series B Financing Round, which was led by Khazanah Nasional Berhad. Other investors included ING Bank and state-owned Guangdong Technology Financial Group (GTFG). Since its launch in 2013, WeLab has reportedly acquired over 8 million registered users and processed US$4.9 billion of loan applications.