Vertex-backed Validus raises $30m in Series D round from Khazanah

*This article is adapted from * DealStreetAsia

Singapore’s digital supply-chain lending startup Validus has secured around $30 million for its Series D funding round from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional to drive growth in its core markets.

The fresh equity round, which came after it sold its Singapore arm to Grab’s GXS Bank in April, could be upsized by $10–15 million from follow-on investors over the next few months, its co-founder and group CEO Nikhilesh Goel told DealStreetAsia.

Declining to comment on the firm’s valuation, Goel said that Validus has never done a down round, noting that the latest round represents “a decent valuation uptick with a double-digit percentage uptake”.

The fresh funds will be used to scale up Validus’s business operations as it looks to double its loan book over the next three years across Indonesia and Thailand.

“As the loan book starts to grow, there is a certain mark at which you will break even and then start making money. We have demonstrated that in Indonesia where we broke even, and we’ve been profitable for three years in a row,” Goel said.

“After this equity round, we expect Thailand to also break even next year. At a group level, we’ll also look to break even by the first half of next year.”

Validus’s fundraising milestone comes as Southeast Asia’s venture capital scene is gradually recovering from reputational setbacks caused by a series of startup scandals, while fund managers continue to face challenges returning capital to investors. Lending startups in Indonesia have been hit particularly hard, with a laundry list of startups — Investree, TaniHub, KoinWorks, Akseleran, iGrow, and Crowde—facing legal or financial difficulties.

Even against this backdrop of regional market challenges, Validus, which has disbursed over $5 billion in loans to small and medium enterprises, is already looking ahead to its pipeline of financing.

The company expects to add another new financing facility next year, Goel said. “We have a pipeline of $300 million across 8–10 institutional lenders, local as well as offshore,” he said, adding that the firm is in various stages of documentation with different international lenders.

Growth trajectory

Validus’s latest milestone came about two years after it announced a Series C-2 round in 2023, a major period which saw the firm exiting the Vietnam market and divesting its Singapore operations to GXS Bank to focus on the two markets it has strong conviction in—Thailand and Indonesia.

For their Indonesia operations, Goel said growth is expected to accelerate by 30–50% in 2026. As of November 2025, Validus’s Indonesian arm has $206 million in total loans outstanding.

In Thailand, its loan book is expected to grow threefold next year given the small base. Across the group, Goel said they are aiming for around 35% growth in their loan portfolio for 2026.

Despite the strong loan growth target, Goel expressed confidence that Validus’s asset quality will remain intact. The fintech’s current non-performing loan (NPL) ratio stands at 1.3% of its total portfolio, based on the banking definition of loans overdue by 90 days or more.

“Doubling in three years is very conservative for our size. For any lending business, the biggest problem is fraud. For us, because we operate a supply-chain model, what we originate comes through corporate partners. The funnel is largely bona fide, good-quality supply-chain borrowers. The model itself keeps NPLs low,” he said.

Goel added that Validus is open to exploring acquisition opportunities after the fundraise. The company previously bought Klearcard’s business payments platform in 2021; and a year later, it acquired CitiBusiness’s SME loan portfolio in Singapore, the loan book of Citi’s small-business banking unit.

Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Validus on this transaction.

Founded in 2015, Validus is the largest fintech supply-chain financing player in Southeast Asia. The startup is backed by Vertex Ventures, Openspace, EDBI, FMO, and Norinchukin Bank, among others. In 2023, the company posted a 42% increase in revenue to $14.74 million, while its group losses nearly halved to $6.71 million.

“Validus’s differentiated model is underpinned by a robust ecosystem-driven supply-chain financing model, proprietary credit underwriting algorithms backed by extensive alternative data sources, and unique end-use control mechanisms,” the company said in a statement.

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