GarudaCap takes stake in FinLink as startup goes B2B

Garuda Capital, a Hong Kong-based, Asia-focused venture capital and financial advisory firm, has acquired a “significant” minority interest in FinLink Technology via an affiliated investment fund.

FinLink, founded in 2017 in Hong Kong and mainland China, provides remittance services. According to its website, it is focused on consumer cross-border payments.

The funding announcement says it has expanded into serving small businesses. It has built a proprietary cross-border payment and clearing engine in Asia, facilitating accounts payable management, receivable financing, and collection.

Its SaaS platform processed $800 million of transaction volumes in 2019 for customers across 55 countries, from sectors such as e-commerce, trading, tourism and logistics.

GarudaCap’s acquisition follows a previously unannounced $2.5 million seed round led by itself and PF Ventures in 2019.

“Following the acquisition, FinLink will realign its strategic focus towards strengthening data analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities,” said Huang Peng, co-founder and CEO of FinLink.

Huang’s LinkedIn page is sparse: he received a master of engineering at National University of Singapore in 2005; there’s no career information until he co-founded FinLink in 2017.

Garuda, with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, focuses on early- to mid-stage investing. Industry agnostic, it tends to follow rather than lead VC investments, alongside partners it knows. It was founded in 2013. Some of its anonymous backers appear to have Indonesian origins (hence the Garuda name).