Jenfi, a Singapore-based alternative revenue-based financing firm for Southeast Asian digital-native enterprises and startups, has secured US $6.3 million in a Series A fundraising round headed by Monk’s Hill Ventures.
The round included participation from Korea Investment Partners, Golden Equator Capital, 8VC, ICU Ventures, and Taurus Venture.
The firm plans to utilise the new funds for product development, client acquisition, and market expansion in Southeast Asia, according to a news release.
Previously, the Y Combinator graduate raised US$25 million in a debt round led by Arc Labs, a San Francisco-based early-stage credit fund, alongside Gluwa, CreditCoin’s co-creators. Its existing investors include Atlas Ventures, Next Billion Ventures, Stormbreaker Ventures, VentureSouq Capital, and Iterative.
Jeffrey Liu and Justin Louie, co-founders of GuavaPass, a fitness subscription service that was bought by ClassPass in 2019, founded Jenfi. Companies wanting to develop their operations through additional marketing, inventory, and growth campaigns may use the startup’s flexible finance alternatives.
Unlike typical lenders, Jenfi analyses and underwrites firms using alternative data sources, rather than relying just on financial records. Accounting software (e.g., Xero, Quickbooks), payment gateways (e.g., Stripe, Braintree), merchant platforms (e.g., Shopify, Shopee, Lazada), and digital advertising are some of these sources (Facebook and Google Ads).
Indicators such as a company’s creditworthiness, growth expenditure efficiency, company health, real-time revenue growth statistics, and marketing ROI are all taken into account.
Non-dilutive growth financing of up to US $500,000 is available in exchange for a modest proportion of future income rather than a predetermined payback plan for business owners and entrepreneurs.
Tier One Entertainment, Pay with Split, and Homebase are just a few of the B2B and SaaS companies that the company claims to have sponsored.
The firm claims that its average client experiences considerable compounded revenue growth, ranging from more than 26.5 percent in three months to over 156 percent in a year.
By July 2022, Jenfi plans to deploy US $15 million in non-dilutive capital.
“Online merchants and digital-enabled businesses are burgeoning, and these same businesses are taking advantage of the exponential growth of e-commerce and digital marketing. It’s time for lenders to evolve,” said CEO Liu. “We built Jenfi with the vision to help these businesses grow and to partner with owners for the long-term without them giving up any equity.”
Jenfi is forging a trail for how digital-first firms handle funding, according to Susli Lie, a venture partner at Monk’s Hill Ventures.
