Monk’s Hill Ventures leads $6.3m round of Singapore revenue-based financing firm

Jenfi, a revenue-based financing company headquartered in Singapore, announced that it has raised US$6.3 million in a series A round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures. Other investors such as Korea Investment Partners, Golden Equator Capital, 8VC, ICU Ventures, and Taurus Ventures also participated in the round.

Jenfi co-founders Jeffrey Liu (left) and Justin Louie / Photo credit: Jenfi

The fintech firm was founded in 2019 by Jeffrey Liu and Justin Louie, who also established fitness subscription company GuavaPass. Jenfi can provide up to US$500,000 non-dilutive capital for digital-native businesses and tech startups. Instead of a fixed monthly installment, the company takes repayment in the form of a percentage of the borrower’s future revenue.

A graduate of accelerator Y Combinator, Jenfi says it’s the first revenue-based financing firm in Southeast Asia.

To date, the startup has backed more than 100 companies, such as Tier One Entertainment, Pay With Split, and HomeBase, that collectively has more than US$30 million in aggregate sales. Jenfi wants to use the fresh funds for product development, customer acquisition, and new market expansion in Southeast Asia. It expects to deploy US$15 million by July 2022.

The total amount of revenue-based investment that has been disbursed by the US-based companies reached US$2.1 billion in the beginning of 2021. Jenfi said that its platform is integrated to various data sources, such as accounting software, payment gateways, merchant platforms, and digital advertising firms, that allow the it to monitor the business activity of its portfolio and underwrite investment in a better way.

Prior to this round, Jenfi got US$25 million in debt funding from San Francisco-based Arc Labs. Some of the company’s investors include Y Combinator, Atlas Ventures, Next Billion Ventures, Stormbreaker Ventures, VentureSouq Capital, and Iterative.