In South Korea, there are about 7.3 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) — outlined as corporations with lower than 250 workers. Their workforces mixed make up 83.1% of all company workers within the nation, totaling about 17.1 million folks, based on OECD data.
To assist meet SMEs’ monetary wants within the nation, Seoul-based fintech startup Korea Credit Data (KCD) mentioned Thursday that it has raised $24.7 million in Sequence D extension financing.
Strategic buyers — Fiserv, a Nasdaq-listed fintech firm, and LG Uplus, a telco unit of LG Company — participated within the extension spherical. In complete, KCD has raised about $70 million in its Sequence D spherical and about $112 million since its 2016 inception, mentioned CEO of KCD Kelvin Dongho Kim.
The newest financing values the corporate at roughly $776 million (1.1 trillion KRW). KCD was valued at about $563 million in November final yr when it raised $28.1 million in its Sequence D1.
The startup desires to handle small retailers’ ache factors by offering digital monetary companies, Kim advised TechCrunch. In 2017, KCD launched its bookkeeping app for SMEs, referred to as Money Observe, which helps small and mid-sized enterprise homeowners observe a complete overview of money circulate, together with revenues, bank card gross sales and expenditure. The app additionally gives companies like SMEs’ gross sales ledgers and coverage info. It allows small enterprise homeowners to attach with different entrepreneurs of their communities seeking to scale their companies.
Most small and mid-sized enterprise homeowners with low credit score data typically wrestle to safe working capital loans and survive tight money circulate, based on Kim. So the startup added SME-focused lending companies to its platform, connecting SMEs entrepreneurs to entry capital mortgage applications, Kim mentioned.
KCD claims that it has greater than 1.7 million registered retailers in South Korea and its app has grown into an excellent app amongst small and mid-sized enterprise homeowners.
KCD has acquired South Korean startups, together with ImU, a POS (level of sale) service supplier, and Persona, a authorities subsidy alert service for SMEs. The corporate plans to make use of its recent capital to broaden its group of 230 and make further acquisitions.
Its earlier backers embrace KB Kookmin Financial institution, KB Securities, GS Holdings, KT Funding, Pavilion Capital, Shinhan Card, Samsung Hearth & Marine Insurance coverage, Kakao and Kclavis.
Updates: Korea Credit score Information has acquired Fiserve Korea as a part of its strategic partnership, based on an announcement by Fiserv on 21 October 2022.
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