Jenfi, a Singapore-based startup that provides up to $500,000 of non-dilutive growth capital to business owners and entrepreneurs, announced raising $6.3 million in a Series A funding round led by Southeast Asia-based venture investor Monk’s Hill Ventures.
Golden Equator Ventures and Korea Investment Partners (via the GEC-KIP Fund), 8VC, ICU Ventures, and Taurus Ventures also participated in the funding round that will finance Jenfi’s product development, customer acquisition, and expansion in Southeast Asia.
Jenfi provides an alternative, revenue-based financing for digital-native businesses and startups. The company takes a small percentage of future revenue instead of a fixed repayment schedule offered by traditional lenders.
Since graduating from Y Combinator, the startup said it has backed over 100 businesses, including B2B and SaaS businesses such as Tier One Entertainment, Pay With Split, and Homebase.
Jeffrey Liu, the company’s co-founder and CEO, shared that the startup was born out of his own financing challenges and frustration as a startup founder. “We understand firsthand the pain points of wanting to accelerate a business but not being able to be qualified for traditional sources of credit… It’s time for lenders to evolve,” said Liu said.
Jenfi is integrated with different data sources to monitor and underwrite businesses, including the likes of accounting software Xero and Quickbooks, payment gateways Stripe and Braintree, merchant platforms Shopify and Lazada, and digital advertising such as Google Ads and Facebook.
This process enables Jenfi to quickly assess and continuously monitor the business activity and health of the companies, and obtain real-time data on revenue growth and marketing ROI. Traditional lenders put more focus on a company’s financial statements.
“We built Jenfi with the vision to help these businesses grow and to partner with owners for the long-term without them giving up any equity,” said Liu.
Jenfi expects to deploy over $15 million by July 2022. Jenfi now joins a long list of Singapore startups that have raised funds this year, accounting for the bulk of the total funds raised in Southeast Asia in the second quarter.
According to proprietary data compiled by DealStreetAsia – DATA VANTAGE, Southeast Asian startups raised at least $5.6 billion in the April-June quarter, with Singapore startups accunting fot $2.85 billion.