Press Release
- Pave the way for Validus to accelerate the build-out of its all-in-one SME business account
- Provide SMEs with a fully integrated and holistic suite of financial tools and analytics to manage and grow their business
- Validus is Southeast Asia’s leading SME financing platform, having crossed the S$1 billion mark in disbursement and is expected to double the amount in the next 12 months
Singapore, 28 October 2021 – Validus, Southeast Asia’s leading and award-winning SME growth financing platform, announced that it has acquired KlearCard’s business payments and expense management technology platform. The acquisition of the KlearCard platform, an established player with a proven product-market fit in the region, will pave the way for Validus to accelerate its build-out of Southeast Asia’s first credit-led SME focused business account. The Validus Business Account will offer a unified platform to provide SMEs with a best-in-class experience through a fully integrated and holistic suite of financial tools and analytics to manage and grow their business.
KlearCard’s platform enables businesses to issue virtual corporate cards instantly with built-in spend control features. This creates tangible time and cost-saving benefits through the issuance of virtual cards to employees and the simplification of accounting workflows, approvals and audits with full integration to common accounting software. In addition, it addresses a pain point of many SME owners, who lack a single place to get an overview of their business. Through Validus’ integration of KlearCard’s technology, businesses can expect to have a personalised and live mobile interface that provides them with the tools to manage their business seamlessly, and spend time focusing on growth.
KlearCard is one of the leaders in expense management in Singapore and counts well-known enterprises amongst its clients including leading multinational companies in the telecommunications, F&B, payments and professional services industries.
Nikhilesh Goel, Co-founder and Group CEO of Validus, said, “SMEs have rapidly adapted and embraced digitalisation to keep their businesses thriving amid the pandemic. With the acquisition of KlearCard, we are well-positioned to strengthen our support for SMEs with one-stop financial management solutions that make it easier for them to grow and manage their business digitally. We will continue to focus on product innovation and strategic investments in technology and people, which in turn, will drive success for our clients across the region.”
Liu Genping, Partner at Vertex Ventures SEA, Validus’ first institutional investor, commended on the strategic move, “This is a milestone acquisition for Validus. It affirms Validus’ strong commitment to enhancing its capability to power the growth and success of its SME customers. And it clearly positions Validus for the next phase of growth in the region as a leading SME-focused business account.”
Sid Narayanan, Co-founder of KlearCard, said “Despite being a bootstrapped company, we’ve seen a 50% Month on Month growth in transaction volumes and have landed well known businesses as customers since we started KlearCard back in 2020.”
Cian O’Dowd, Co-founder of KlearCard, said “This transaction is a great outcome for all our stakeholders – all of whom get a very significant positive return on their investment over an 18 month time horizon despite headwinds from COVID-19.”
KlearCard was founded in 2020 by Mr Sid Narayanan, Mr Cian O’Dowd and Mr Arun Rajkumar.
Validus’ acquisition of KlearCard and accelerated growth comes at a timely stage in its journey, just as it has launched its Series C fundraise targeting USD 100 million in equity and debt. Evercore Singapore, a leading independent global investment bank, is advising Validus on the fund raise. The funds will enable Validus to strengthen its business account offering for SMEs, expand geographically to grow its support for underserved SMEs, and cement its position as a leader in digital financial management and lending solutions for SMEs in the region.
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About Validus
Founded in 2015 to address the unmet financing needs of SMEs, Validus is Southeast Asia’s largest SME digital financing platform. Headquartered in Singapore, Validus is present in 4 markets – Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. An award-winning Fintech, Validus uses data analytics and AI to drive growth financing to the underserved SME sector via funds from individual and institutional investors. Validus holds a Capital Markets Services Licence by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and is also licensed by Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) in Indonesia and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Thailand. For more information, please visit www.validus.sg.
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