Jenfi raises more funding for its “growth capital as a service” platform

Jenfi, a “growth-capital-as-a-service” platform, can present on-line companies with revenue-based financing in a bit of as a day. The Singapore-based startup introduced at the moment it has raised $6.6 million in pre-Sequence B funding, led by Headline Asia. Participation got here from returning investor Monk’s Hill Ventures, which led Jenfi’s Sequence A two years in the past, ICU Ventures, Granite Oak, Korea Funding Companions & Golden Equator Capital and Atlas Ventures.

Since Jenfi’s inception 4 years in the past, it has deployed greater than $25 million in non-dilutive capital to about 600 firms. Its clients embody Gushcloud, Ralali, Whats up Well being, Lamer Vogue, Buy2sell and Mystifly. The brand new funding can be used to develop its buyer base in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia, and develop into new markets in Southeast Asia, like Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. It’s going to additionally allow Jenfi to refine its credit score underwriting and danger evaluation capabilities, together with its proprietary danger evaluation engine.

The fintech was based in 2019 by Jeffrey Liu and Justin Louie, who exited from their earlier startup, health market GuavaPass, when it was acquired by ClassPass. Jenfi’s “development capital as a service” mannequin was developed after the 2 realized that on-line enterprise homeowners, like e-commerce sellers, SaaS and shopper tech suppliers, usually had hassle getting capital to fund their development bills from conventional monetary establishments.

Jenfi co-founders Jeffrey Liu and Justin Louie

Companies that apply to Jenfi can get financing starting from $10,000 to $1 million to spend on advertising, stock and development campaigns. Liu informed TechCrunch that combination gross sales generated by firms in Jenfi’s portfolio is now greater than $150 million.

Selections about what companies to lend to are made with Jenfi’s proprietary danger evaluation engine, which integrates into information sources like accounting software program, fee gateways, e-commerce platforms, on-line marketplaces and digital promoting. This lets Jenfi repeatedly monitor its debtors’ enterprise exercise, together with income development and advertising return on funding.

As Jenfi grows, it’s including extra native market information sources, together with promoting administration platform Haravan and POS administration software program KiotViet in Vietnam, and nearly all banks in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Jenfi’s proprietary danger engine is without doubt one of the essential methods it differentiates from different firms providing revenue-based financing to digital-native companies, stated Liu, as a result of it means extra complete assessments of creditworthiness and tailor-made financing options.

Since its Sequence A was introduced, Jenfi has deployed its first machine learning-assisted underwriting system, which Liu stated allows it to make quicker underwriting selections, with higher accuracy and fewer human involvement.

Sooner or later, Jenfi will work with artificial information to get a greater understanding of consumer habits and doable future outcomes. The corporate additionally plans to develop a tech platform to permit third-parties to make use of its proprietary scoring fashions in their very own native infrastructure.

One other manner Jenfi differentiates from opponents is the pliability of its compensation plans, stated Liu. They vary from three to 12 months and are designed to versatile, taking the wants of every enterprise in thoughts. Compensation quantities are based mostly on a pre-determined share of income, however that varies extensively relying on enterprise kind. For instance, a high-margin software program enterprise could also be granted the next income share share than companies in one other sector.

The overall quantity of charges that an organization pays will depend on the credit score rating generated by its proprietary danger engine. Liu stated charges are clear and aggressive, with no hidden charges or costs.

Jenfi’s plans for the close to future embody providing development capital to extra shoppers via using dynamic limits, which may be adjusted based mostly on consumer wants and creditworthiness. It’s going to additionally launch an on-demand financing product to cowl recurring development capital wants like variable month-to-month advert spend.

In a press release, Headline Asia accomplice Aki Okamoto and principal Jonathan M. Hayashi, stated “We have now been repeatedly conducting analysis on revenue-based financing, and have talked to nearly each single participant on this discipline in Asia. Jenfi completely stood out to us. Their know-how, product, operation and traction are considerably higher than their friends.”