WeLab Limited is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

financial technology Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, ...

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 WeLab Bank Limited () is a virtual bank and a wholly owned subsidiary of WeLab. History Founding to launch (2018–2020) In 2017, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) began to explore the need to accelerate the development of FinTech fi ...

, one of the first virtual banks to be granted a license to operate in Hong Kong. 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.

History

WeLab Limited was first established on 22 November 2012 in Hong Kong as WeLend, but began operating as WeLab in January 2013. Later that year, WeLend launched 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. In April 2019, WeLab was granted Hong Kong's fourth virtual banking licence, and the company launched

Funding

Series A

In January 2015, WeLab raised US$20 million in its Series A fundraising round. Key investors include CK Hutchison's

TOM Group TOM Group Limited () is a technology and Media listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. TOM Group's technology platform and investment-related businesses encompass Mobile Internet, E-Commerce, Fintech and Advanced Data An ...

, Silicon Valley venture capital firm

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...

Yuri Milner Yuri Borisovich (Bentsionovich) Milner (, ; born 11 November 1961) is a Soviet-born Israeli entrepreneur, investor, physicist and scientist. He is a co-founder and former chairperson of internet company Mail.Ru Group (later VK), and a founder ...

founder of

DST Global DST Global is a venture capital and private equity firm that primarily invests in late-stage internet companies. DST Global has been described as one of the largest and most influential venture firms in the world, with an estimated $50 bill ...

, 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 ING Group N.V. () is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale banking, private ban ...

and the 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 Credit Suisse Group AG (, ) was a global Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. According to UBS, eventually Credit Suisse was to be fully integrated into UBS. While the integration ...

and the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C. and a member of the World Bank Group that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private ...

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

Allianz Allianz SE ( , ) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. Allianz is the world's largest List of largest insurance ...

Brands

Leadership

* ''Group Chief Executive Officer:'' Simon Loong (since January 2013)

References

{{Reflist, 30em Financial technology Financial services companies established in 2013 Financial services companies of Hong Kong Technology companies established in 2013