Venteny nets $2.3m for its combination of employee benefits and microlending

The Venteny team. Photo credit: Venteny

Venteny, a combined human resources and fintech platform, has raised US$2.3 million in series A funding.

The round was led by SBI Investment, the VC unit of Japanese financial services group SBI. Tokyo VC firm SV-FINTECH and an undisclosed independent firm from Singapore also joined the investment, along with fintech angels Mamoru Taniya and Makoto Takano.

The startup said in a statement that the funding go towards further developing its platform, expanding into new markets in Southeast Asia, and “strengthening the group structure of Venteny for the foreseeable future.”

Today’s series A announcement follows a seed round in February, which saw the startup raise an undisclosed sum from KK Fund and Ocean Capital.

Established in April 2015, Venteny is headquartered in Singapore but runs all operations out of the Philippines, which serves as the pilot market for its platform. The platform provides an outsourced-employee benefits scheme for local companies, allowing workers to get exclusive perks such as discounts at restaurants, gyms, and hotels that Venteny has partnered with.

There are several startups that offer similar tech-based perks programs for employers, which otherwise lack the time and resources to develop and run their own schemes. But what sets Venteny apart from the competition is its online short-terms lending service for employees, explained founder and CEO Junichiro Waide.

Retention issue

Originally from Japan, Waide told Tech in Asia that he came up the idea for a hybrid perks and lending solution after working as a manager in the Philippine IT industry for several years.

“I was truly impressed with [local workers’] skills, [as well as their] high motivation and flexibility,” he said. “However, I also noticed that despite the rapid growth of the economy in the Philippines, the working environment for employees was very outdated compared to where I worked previously – in the US, Japan, and Singapore.”

“Therefore many companies [there had] issues with low engagement and high turnover rate of employees, [while] employees had issues with lack of cash and credit. There was a big gap between the two of them.”

Waide added that many company personnel in Southeast Asia face the same problem. Their weekly or monthly pay packet doesn’t necessarily give them immediate access to funds to cover things like emergency medical care, tuition fees, and general family assistance.

Because of these issues, employees have a tendency to change jobs quickly as they search for incrementally higher salaries. By providing loans for employees in conjunction with attractive benefits, Venteny’s two-pronged approach is aimed at addressing this retention issue.

Venteny also owns a subsidiary that’s is a licensed lender in the Philippines. This allows the startup to handle the process itself, so Venteny can assess a loan application and remit the money within a day of receiving the request.

Waide said that around 80,000 workers in the Philippines are currently part of Venteny-operated schemes, and its largest client is a major call center operator with 20,000 employees. It also works with employers in banking, insurance, and IT sectors.