Vietnamese financial services firm F88 has secured a $50-million loan from Lending Ark Asia, bringing the total fundraising from the private debt business to $100 million to date, according to an announcement.
Last year, the Mekong Capital-backed financial services firm F88 secured loans worth $50 million from Lending Ark Asia Secured Private Debt Funds and $10 million from Lendable.
Lending Ark is the private debt business of Hong Kong-based alternative investment firm CLSA Capital Partners. Prior to F88, Lending Ark provided a $50-million loan to Vietnamese microfinance firm FE Credit in 2018.
“The new loan will be used to boost the company’s growth plan,” said F88 chairman and CEO Phung Anh Tuan.
F88 is targeting to expand its financial services to underserved people in Vietnam. The company claims that its revenue for the first half of 2023 increased 52% while total of users increased 30% year-on-year, he added. F88 is targeting to become a public company in 2024.
In March this year, the company raised $50 million in a Series C funding round led by Vietnam-Oman Investment Fund (VOI) and Mekong Enterprise Fund IV (MEF IV).
In the same month, local media reported that hundreds of Vietnamese police officers raided the Ho Chi Minh City offices of F88 Investment JSC, following public complaints about “administrative violations”.
Founded in 2013 as a pawnshop chain, F88 received its first private equity funding from Vietnam-focused investment firm Mekong Capital in 2017. A year later, F88 secured a new round from Dublin-based investor Granite Oak Advisors. In 2020, the company raised $6 million from its two existing backers.
From a pawnshop model, F88 expanded to become a microfinance business to serve the unbanked and underbanked population in Vietnam, offering services such as loans, insurance, bill payment, deposits and withdrawals and e-wallet money transfer.