Skype co-founder’s Oriente banks $105m from some of Southeast Asia’s richest families

Southeast Asia’s 600 million-strong market is one of the most rapidly growing in the world. Despite this, only 27 percent of its population have bank accounts, data from professional services firm KPMG shows. In poorer countries like Cambodia, the numbers go even lower at 5 percent.

Skype co-founder Geoffrey Prentice aims to bring those numbers up by building financial identities for the unbanked through his newest venture, Oriente. And he’s just gotten the support of some of region’s richest families.

Hong Kong-based Oriente welcomes Malaysia’s Berjaya Group, the Philippines’ JG Summit Holdings, and Indonesia’s Sinar Mas as investors in its series A round, worth a whopping US$105 million. The investment follows joint venture deals that Oriente forged with the latter two conglomerates.

The amount ranks one of the largest series A rounds in Asia, says Oriente. This was confirmed by Tech in Asia data.

The startup will use the money to further develop its products, scale its operations in existing markets, and enter new ones.

A few months after its 2017 launch, Oriente rolled out mobile-first fintech ventures in the Philippines (Cashalo) and Indonesia (Finmas) that offer real-time credit scoring and affordable loans to individuals and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.

Oriente uses alternative data points, focusing on the nuances of people’s consumption habits, in deciding if an applicant with no credit history is worthy to receive financing. By knowing its customers more, it can tailor its products and drive down rates to as low as possible. This goes against industry practice where banks and other traditional lenders stick to a standard checklist of information on borrowers.

Oriente lends from its own balance sheet and the funds it’s obtained from investors. It earns through interest on the loans and “a nominal processing fee” charged to borrowers. The lending sector targeting the unbanked and underbanked is a crowded one, especially with the launch of peer-to-peer platforms. Oriente claims to make a difference by practicing “purpose-based” lending – it helps evaluates borrowers’ needs to make sure they raise only what they require. This also lessens the risks of loans turning sour.

The company says its apps are on track to serve “millions” of individuals and MSMEs in the region. In the Philippines, Cashalo has been downloaded more than 1 million times.

Its non-performing loans ratio – the percentage of defaulted loans to outstanding loans – stands at less than 1 percent. In comparison, the NPL ratio in Singapore’s banking system was 2 percent at the beginning of 2017.

Oriente is keeping mum about certain financial details such as the exact number of its clients, its revenue, and loan portfolio value.