Credit management company Flow raises debt capital
By Edil Corneille
Singapore-based Flow, a credit management company announced today that it has raised a round of debt capital that will facilitate the company’s growth in loan portfolio acquisition. The company has mentioned that it is transforming the non-performing consumer loans (NPL) market in the APAC region through ethical, AI-powered collection strategies and systems.
The undisclosed amount of debt capital was raised through Genesis Alternative Ventures (Genesis), Southeast Asia’s private lender to venture and growth-stage companies funded by tier-one VCs.
The capital raised is significant as it was secured in these challenging times of the COVID-19 outbreak. Flow has managed to secure capital that will enable the company to further acquire unsecured NPL portfolios. Since the announcement of its Series A funding raised in May 2020 (6 million USD of equity capital), this is the first time Flow has explored debt as an additional funding strategy.
Flow has mentioned that as it continues to grow and experience higher month-over-month revenues, even during the pandemic, acquiring debt capital at an attractive rate is key for the company to scale up its acquisition of NPL portfolios. NPL purchasing is a significant business vertical for Flow and debt capital used prudently can substantially enhance the IRR of purchased portfolios.
The venture loan from Genesis will help Flow to execute multiple portfolio acquisition plans in Vietnam, Indonesia, and other select countries where there are anticipated strong growth trajectories.
“This funding from Genesis is another major milestone for Flow and for our debt portfolio purchase business in particular. In keeping with our mission, we can reach out to further support consumers in overcoming financial difficulties,” explains Co-Founder and CEO Tomasz Borowski.
The relationship with Genesis supports Flow’s mission of promoting ethical responsible collection and financial inclusion to empower consumers in underserved economies in Asia.
Genesis’ Co-founder and Managing Partner, Dr Jeremy Loh shared that a growing business needs to balance the use of debt and equity to optimise its cost of capital. As a specialist lender, Genesis works with tech-enabled companies like Flow to the right size and apply debt appropriately.
“We have evaluated the FinTech value chain and was very impressed with Flow’s commitment to transform the many decade-old debt collection business using AI and ethical practices. Genesis is a returns-first, scaled impact venture lender who wants to back growth-stage companies with impact objectives such as financial inclusion, sustainable food production, small business digitisation and gender diversity, that are looking to scale across Southeast Asia,” said Dr Jeremy Loh.
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