El proyecto

Summary

Validus is Southeast Asia's largest SME financing platform for small businesses, individual and institutional investors. Using data analytics and AI to avail growth financing to underserved SMEs, Validus aims to drive inclusive growth for SMEs and economies in the ASEAN region. Validus is built using established, sophisticated and swift platforms to create a better financial experience. Better because it's branchless. Better because it's a transparent, two‐sided SME financing platform. And better because it's not focused on institutions but people.

Founded in 2015 in Singapore, their first loan was disbursed to a small IT hardware supplier to Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. Today, they’re a team of over 250 strong, across four countries in ASEAN. They’re committed to driving financial inclusion for SMEs in the region, and their journey continues, onwards and upwards!

Use of Proceeds / Loan purpose

With a loan contribution to this project, Validus’ Indonesian subsidiary Batumbu will provide financing to an active community of over 1,200 SME distributors, who deliver essential products and goods for communities across Indonesia. Batumbu’s distributor financing partners operate across FMCG, Pharmaceutical and Manufacturing sectors, and 26 of 34 provinces in Indonesia. The delivery of these goods will enable access of both urban and rural households with essential products to their health and wellbeing, and further facilitates the jobs of over 500+ delivery partners facilitating the supply chains the loan will drive.

Since Batumbu’s achievement of OJK registration in 2018 and full license thereafter, it has risen to #1 position in terms of monthly financing to SMEs in spite of its relatively newer entry to the market than its peers. Batumbu’s unique focus exclusively on the productive sector (SME and project-based financing as opposed to consumptive lending) has supported its journey to finance over S$950 million in loans to micro and small enterprises to date, within a partner and supply chain ecosystem that is over 90 corporations in strength.

Validus and Batumbu partner with large corporates in the ASEAN region to finance their supplier and distributor transactions using data-driven underwriting methodologies. They leverage vast pools of live, alternative data including historical lending, contract, and purchasing information to allow them to offer financing to SMEs and micro enterprises traditionally underserved by the banks. Their extensive experience in this space has allowed them to offer a diverse range of short-term, unsecured financing products including accounts receivable financing (invoice financing), accounts payable financing, and working capital financing to SMEs. As a Group, they have financed over S$2 billion in loans to date, across four markets, and service a loan book of over S$170 million and 2,700+ active SME borrowers. 

Upon successful delivery of this project, the loan will be repaid by the SME distributors, who have been onboarded through a supply chain financing program with the corporate partners of Batumbu who support the transaction through the provision of alternative data Batumbu leverages for underwriting, and payment security mechanisms to ensure the closed-loop nature of the financing.

Mission

To uplift every life in a community that is a connected to an enterprise.

Their guiding principle is that through SME lending and financial services, they will improve and uplift the lives of everyone who touches an SME - whether the owner, the employees and their daily job routines, their families, vendors, customers etc. Hence, Validus envisions building a truly digital SME community that they can make a significant impact on. As long as there is a business or an enterprise, whether run by a single individual or a hundred, Validus wants to make a direct impact on their lives and well-being.

Validus pursues this mission while embodying the core Validus' values and bringing the same to the ecosystem we are building:

1.        Fearless

2.        Agile

3.        Collaborative

4.        Trust & Respect

Vision

To be the most-loved, fully digital and credit-led Neobank, partnering over 100,000 micro & small enterprises in the ASEAN region.