Dianrong.com has received on Thursday, Aug. 20, the largest round of funding in China's peer-to-peer lending sector worth $207 million cash infusion from a group of investors led by global lender Standard Chartered Plc., the China Daily reported.
According to the report, the infusion is the third round of financing that Dianrong.com got after other lenders such as China Fintech Fund and Bohai Leasing contributed to the funding.
Dianrong received its second round of financing from Tiger Global Management on Jan. 15. The latter had also invested in Chinese Internet companies, such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc.
The report said that the investment is seen as the largest in China's P2P industry and also the third largest in the world's Internet finance industry. In addition, it was also the first time that a direct equity investment in an Internet finance company was made by a traditional lender.
"Standard Chartered Private Equity rarely invests in early-stage companies. We typically focus on growth and late-stage companies. Dianrong is an exceptional case. Standard Chartered has a different investment strategy than typical venture capital firms. We do not invest in a lot of companies, but emphasize on high quality investments and overall success rate; we would only like to invest in the best and most differentiated company in the industry," Zhu Wei, managing director and global co-head of SCPE, was quoted as saying.
According to the report, the funds raised by Dianrong.com will be used to boost its operations, products, brand and employees, as the company is expected to add 2,500 more employees in the next 18 months.
Soul Htite, co-founder and chief executive officer of the company, said that Dianrong expects the number of branches to rise three-fold in the near future. Htite is also the co-founder of Lending Club, the world's largest P2P platform.
"The investment is substantial. We will not give the money to people who would spend their money on entertainment or those who would spend the money in the stock market. But rather, we will give it to those who will give the money back to the economy," Htite was quoted as saying.
Dianrong also launched a unique and innovative wealth management product called "Group Investing - TuanTuanZhuan" in June 2014. At present, TuanTuanZhuan has exceeded 2.7 billion yuan ($422 million) in volume and earned over 100 million yuan in interest for Dianrong lenders.