Hong Kong’s Qupital Raises $2M Led by Alibaba to Help SMEs With Loans

Qupital, a one-year-old Hong Kong-based startup that addresses cash flow issues for SMEs, has closed a $2 million seed funding round.

The startup wants to free small companies on tight budgets from the restraints of unpaid invoices. That’s to say that a large chunk of an SME’s working cash flow is locked up in invoices that may take up to 90 days to actually pay out.

Qupital tackles that issue by getting companies to take a loan to cover 80-95 percent of the value of the invoice

With an estimated 300,000 SMEs located in Hong Kong, there’s an attractive initial market to be tackled. The link with Alibaba will help Qupital reach traders and SMEs — which represent its core focus . While the startup said there’s no precise plan on new locations yet, they hinted that countries with strong export sectors, such as Vietnam, Taiwan or Thailand would be among the obvious choices.

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Original content by ecommerceIQ