Online lending startup Oriente has secured a $20 million debt funding facility from multi-asset investment firm Silverhorn Group.
The facility, which can increase to $50 million, will be used to grow and diversify the funding mix of the Hong Kong-based startup’s loan book, the startup said in a press release.
The company in November 2018 had raised more than $105 million in equity from its initial funding round, with investments from its founders and a group of family offices including members of the Berjaya Group, JG Summit Holdings and Sinar Mas.
Launched in 2018, the company’s Cashalo playform has been downloaded more than 6.5 million times, and has a user base of over 2.5 million consumers.
Monthly interest rate for its “Cashaloans” stand at 7.5%, with a repayment period ranging from 15 days to six months.
“To date, Oriente is one of the very few non-bank lenders that can leverage on alternative data points and an algorithmic risk engine to underwrite credit to the under-financed populations in the region,” said Mike Imam, managing partner at Hong Kong-based Silverhorn Group._x000D_
“This helps originate and provide a portfolio construction building brick which is higher yielding, predictable and uncorrelated to traditional asset classes”.
“We are excited to have won the confidence of Silverhorn Group. As we enter the next stage of growth on our mission to helping ignite economic opportunity for tens of millions of consumers and micro-enterprises, the support we receive from our debt partners is critical,” said Geoffrey Prentice, a co-founder of Oriente._x000D_
Oriente was founded in 2017 by Prentice, a former Skype co-founder and chief strategy officer; former founding chief technology offer and chief operations offer at LU.com, Hubert Tai – who is now chief executive of Oriente; and founder of BlackPine Private Equity, Lawrence Chu.
