F88, a financial services start-up located in Vietnam, claimed to have acquired a loan of $50 million from Lending Ark as well as a separate loan of $10 million from Lendable.
F88 stated in a statement that the company must diversify its sources of funding due to a decline in the issuance of corporate bonds in Vietnam. It further stated that the fresh cash would be put to use expanding its loan book and expanding its distribution system.
F88 has diversified its financial offerings since its founding in 2013 when it first used the pawnshop business model. Vehicle title loans, the distribution of life and non-life insurance, bill payment, mobile money, and e-wallet top-ups are now available.
The target market for the firm is 60% to 70% of Vietnamese citizens who have no or limited access to financial services
For its clients, F88’s branches act as centers of financial ease. The firm presently has 800 outlets nationwide, and by 2024, when it could file for an IPO, it hopes to have 1,400 locations.
In order to enable clients to quickly get loans to fund their electronics purchases, it struck a collaboration with Mobile World, the largest electronics shop in Vietnam, in 2021.
According to F88, the loan book for the first nine months of this year increased by 246.4% when compared to the same time in 2021.
Lendable provided the FinTech company with a US $10 million credit facility earlier this year, which was the company’s first transaction in Vietnam.
