SMBC Asia Rising Fund, the corporate venture capital fund of Japan’s SMBC Group, has announced three new investments in startups actively operating in India and Southeast Asia.
MODIFI, Easy Home Finance and M2P Fintech are the three newly funded companies.
Headquartered in the Netherlands, MODIFI operates a global platform for B2B cross-border supply chain finance. The company received $15 million, courtesy of a Series C funding round led by SMBC Asia Rising Fund. This infusion is set to accelerate MODIFI’s expansion efforts and enhance its financial service offerings worldwide, according to a release on Wednesday.
Easy Home Finance, based in India, specialises in providing affordable housing loans, leveraging its in-house full-stack technology to streamline processes. The SMBC Asia Rising Fund contributed to its Series B funding round, supporting Easy Home Finance’s goal to make homeownership more accessible across India.
Meanwhile, M2P Fintech is an innovative force in Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), enabling next-generation fintech companies globally by providing comprehensive tech infrastructure. This new partnership with SMBC Asia Rising Fund is poised to drive significant developments in the financial services sector.
“There are numerous synergies and collaboration opportunities between our three portfolio companies and the broader SMBC Group. We are eager to witness how these collaborations will evolve, creating value and contributing to the growth of the region. Our fund is committed to supporting the development of India, Southeast Asia, and the global community by investing in prominent startups and fostering innovation,” SMBC Asia Rising Fund stated.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Tokyo-based Incubate Fund launched the SMBC Asia Rising Fund in Singapore in May 2023. The vehicle, primarily financed by SMBC, aims to invest in fintech startups and also in other high-growth sectors across Asia.
SMBC Asia Rising Fund will manage $200 million, most of which comes from the Japanese megabank. It will invest in fintech startups with advanced technologies in payment, lending and other fields to promote financial services with them in Asia.
During the planned fund management period of 10 years, SMBC will seek investment destinations among startups having cutting-edge financial technologies in such fields as “lending tech”, which uses innovative technology to look at data and decide on whether loans should be extended, and “banking as a service” (BaaS).
In June this year, SMBC Asia Rising Fund participated in the Series B funding round of Indonesia’s business-to-business (B2B) fintech company Paper.id.
