Startup bags funds from Singapore ex-minister to get ultra-wealthy into crowdlending

Helicap co-founder David Z Wang (L) and Teo Ser Luck / Photo credit: Helicap

Singapore-based Helicap is a new fintech platform that aims to bring a fund management angle in the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending space. To make this happen, it has raised US$1.5 million in seed funding.

The round was led by Teo Ser Luck, the former Minister of State for Manpower who last year decided to trade politics for the startup sector. Fintech company Nufin Data, where Teo serves as chairman, also invested.

Helicap co-founder David Z Wang was introduced to the member of parliament through a common acquaintance. Teo told Wang he wasn’t keen on simply being a board member somewhere – he wanted to be more hands-on.

“If you have a seed-stage company, I’ll be very interested,” he told Wang. A few months later, Wang approached him for an investment into Helicap and Teo agreed.

Helicap is an extra layer between P2P lending companies that cater to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as the investors who lend through these platforms.

Similar to a fund manager, the startup sources capital from large-scale investors like pension funds, insurance companies, and family offices, and then deploys it through the platforms. It makes money by charging fees to these investors.

It also provides due diligence services, vetting players in the region and the best deals on their websites. For this purpose, it has partnered with Nufin to use the latter’s data analytics capabilities, combining them with Helicap’s credit assessment metrics.

Helicap has identified more than 300 P2P lending platforms in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Helicap will use the funding to grow its team and develop its technology backend. It will also put part of it into loans on platforms that the company is examining.

“We will deploy smaller amounts just to get to know them,” Wang says. Helicap plans to raise a larger amount of capital for lending in the next six months, ranging from US$5 million to US$10 million.

It has already deployed US$20 million to US$30 million worth of capital for loans in the last nine months, and is looking at a minimum return of 12 percent.

The team has identified more than 300 P2P lending platforms in Southeast Asia and Australia, and has targeted around 100 for collaboration. Helicap has started working with 10 of them so far.

The only one that’s publicly announced is Funding Societies, which recently raised US$25 million from Softbank Ventures Korea. Funding Societies CEO Kelvin Teo says his team has been working closely with Helicap.

A bird’s-eye view of the SME lending market