Big 3 of the P2P Lending Industry Raised 260 Billion Won... "Securing Breakeven Point Next Year" (Comprehensive)

Recent Investment Amount 174.7 Billion Won... Accounts for 65.3%
Global Financial Firms Including Goldman Sachs Also Interested
Substantial Funds Bet on 'Strengthening Competitiveness'
"We Aim to Achieve Quantum Growth in 2022" Ambition Too

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] The online investment-linked finance industry (OnTu industry) is securing funds for rapid growth. It is attracting thousands of billions of won from domestic financial companies as well as global investors. This is interpreted as being influenced by the so-called 'big players' investing as the OnTu industry's 'innovative finance' technology rapidly advances.

According to the OnTu industry on the 24th, the top three companies by asset size?8 Percent, Rendit, and PeopleFund?have currently raised a total investment amount of 267.41 billion won. PeopleFund raised the most with 99.86 billion won. Rendit and 8 Percent raised 94.1 billion won and 73.45 billion won respectively.

OnTu industry refers to services that connect investors and borrowers using online platforms. The principal and interest are returned to investors as investment returns. The OnTu business model generates profits through platform fees during this process. Eight Percent, Rendit, and PeopleFund were officially licensed as the first companies just 1 year and 8 months after the related law was passed in October 2019.

The investment amount in the OnTu industry is steadily increasing. The total amount of the most recent investments received by these companies is 174.7 billion won, accounting for about 65.3% of the total. Typically, investments in new industries start with seed money and proceed through Series A, B, C rounds according to company value. The seed money for these three companies was only about 1 to 2 billion won each.

OnTu Companies Securing Funds... Betting on Strengthening Competitiveness

The range of investors is also diversifying. PeopleFund received an investment of 75.9 billion won from global financial firms such as Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs in its Series C this month. 8 Percent secured 45.3 billion won (Series C) from BRV Capital, SBI Investment, and Glint Partners, while Rendit successfully raised 53.5 billion won (Series E) from H&Q Korea.

Domestic financial companies and related institutions are also showing steady interest in the growth of the OnTu industry. The Small and Medium Business Corporation has invested in Rendit and 8 Percent. Among financial companies, Kakao Pay was listed as an investor with 18.2 billion won (Series B) in PeopleFund in July 2019. The policy bank IBK Industrial Bank of Korea invested 10 billion won in Niceabc, which focuses on corporate finance, together with Stonebridge Ventures.

The OnTu industry plans to use the secured funds to refine mid-interest loan models and strengthen competitiveness through personnel acquisition. There are also expectations that full-scale profit realization and rapid growth will be possible starting next year. A PeopleFund official said, "We have secured the industry's best engineers and credit evaluation experts, and the credit scoring system (CSS) has undergone performance improvements four times," adding, "We expect to surpass the break-even point next year."

Kim Sung-jun, CEO of Rendit, emphasized, "We have endured and overcome an important period of establishing the foundation of the industry through the enactment, enforcement, and registration of the OnTu law over the past 3 to 4 years," and added, "Having laid the groundwork for growth by attracting large-scale investments, we will achieve quantum growth in 2022."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.