WeLab

WeLab Limited is a Hong Kong financial technology company offering a range of services, such as online consumer credit platforms and virtual banking. It was founded in January 2013 by Simon Loong, Kelly Wong and Frances Kang, and is best known for being the parent company of WeLab Bank, one of the first virtual banks to be granted a license to operate in Hong Kong.[1]

WeLab Limited
TypePrivate
IndustryFinancial technology
FoundedJanuary 2013 (2013-01)
Founder
  • Simon Loong
  • Kelly Wong
HeadquartersHong Kong
Key people
  • Simon Loong (CEO)
  • Ernest Leung (COO)
Websitewelab.co

Outside of Hong Kong, WeLab also operates in mainland China and Indonesia. As of 2020, WeLab had over 40 million customers and facilitated over HK$50 billion in loans.[2]

History

WeLab Limited was first established on 22 November 2012 in Hong Kong as WeLend, but began operating as WeLab in January 2013,[3] and later that year launched WeLend as a standalone product – Hong Kong's first online consumer credit lending platform. In 2014, WeLab began to expand outside of Hong Kong, first into Mainland China with Wolaidai (我来贷), then into Indonesia in 2018 with a partnership with Astra International.[4]

In April 2019, WeLab was granted Hong Kong's fourth virtual banking licence, and the company launched WeLab Bank.[5]

Series A

In January 2015, WeLab raised US$20 million in its Series A fundraising round. Key investors include CK Hutchison's TOM Group; Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital; Yuri Milner, founder of DST Global; ICONIQ Capital; and Ule.com, a joint venture between China Post, China's state-owned postal service and TOM Group.

Series B

In January 2016, WeLab raised US$160 million in its Series B fundraising from a consortium of international and domestic Chinese investors led by Khazanah Nasional Berhad. Other investors include ING Bank and state-owned Guangdong Technology Financial Group (GTFG). This fundraising round was ranked as the 5th largest FinTech fundraising round out of 413 deals across the globe in the first half of 2016.

In November 2017, WeLab raised US$220 million in its new financing from Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund and global financial institutions China Construction Bank (International), Credit Suisse and the World Bank's International Finance Corporation.[6]

Series C

In late 2019, WeLab raised US$156 million (HK$1.2 billion) of Series C strategic financing, bringing its total funding to over $580 million.[7]

In March 2021, WeLab raised US$75 million in a Series C1 from Allianz X, a venture capital arm of European financial conglomerate Allianz.[8]

Brands
Company Markets served Sector
Taoxinji China Lending
Tianmian Lab China B2B FinTech services
Wallet Gugu China Payments
WeLab Digital China Lending
WeLab Bank Hong Kong Banking
WeLab Pay Hong Kong Payments
WeLend Hong Kong Lending
Bank Jasa Jakarta Indonesia Banking
Maucash Indonesia Lending

Leadership
  • Group Chief Executive Officer: Simon Loong (since January 2013)

References
  1. Yiu, Enoch (7 May 2018). "WeLab joins fintech race to become Hong Kong's first licensed virtual bank". SCMP.
  2. "WeLab". CNBC. 16 June 2020.
  3. "WeLend Ltd". Bloomberg.
  4. "Indonesia Gets Yet Another Mobile Lending Startup Backed by Hong Kong's WeLab". Fintech Singapore. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  5. "WeLab gets Hong Kong's fourth online-only banking licence". Reuters. 10 April 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  6. Financial tech startup WeLab raises $220M from investors including Alibaba, the IFC and Credit Suisse, Techcrunch, 7 November 2019
  7. "WeLab". CNBC. 16 June 2020.
  8. "Hong Kong fintech unicorn WeLab raises $75M led by insurance giant Allianz". TechCrunch. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
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