Latest news with #Validus
Finextra
3 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
Validus opens new Singapore office
Validus Risk Management (Validus), a leading software and tech-enabled services platform for financial risk management, today announces the opening of its new Singapore office and appointment of Shawn Koh as Head of Asia Client Coverage. 0 In his role, Shawn will lead operations across APAC, as the firm continues to expand its presence in the region following growing client demand for its services, with a particular focus on supporting both local and global private capital firms. Shawn brings significant expertise and a wealth of experience in the region, having previously served as Regional Head of Global Markets Sales Asia at First Abu Dhabi Bank (previously National Bank of Abu Dhabi). In this role, Shawn was responsible for developing client businesses with offices based in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Mumbai. Commenting on his appointment, Shawn Koh says: 'This is an exciting time to be joining Validus as we continue to develop our APAC offering. I'm looking forward to working with and growing our team to support our clients with their risk management needs as they navigate an ever-complex macroeconomic landscape.' With further hires expected in H2 2025, the Singapore opening marks Validus' first office in the region. Its premises will be located in the Central Business District's landmark CapitaGreen office tower. Validus' other offices are located across the UK, US, Canada, and Norway. Kevin Lester, CEO of Validus Risk Management, said: 'This is an opportune moment for us to cement our presence in APAC, and bringing Shawn onboard aligns perfectly with our growth ambitions for the company. The opening of a Singapore office marks another milestone, further bolstering our ability to support clients, not only at a regional level, but on a global scale.' Haakon Blakstad, CCO of Validus Risk Management, added: 'We're delighted to welcome Shawn to the Validus team. The addition of his expertise and leadership greatly enhances our existing capabilities in APAC and we look forward to working together to support our growth strategy for the region.' In February 2025, Validus announced that it had secured a $45 million growth equity investment from FTV Capital. In addition to supporting the company's continued expansion into the APAC, US and European markets, the investment will enable Validus to accelerate its go-to-market efforts and invest in technology and product innovation.
Business Times
18-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
GXS' acquisition of Validus' Singapore business a sign of market validation
[SINGAPORE] The recent acquisition of small and medium enterprise (SME) lender Validus' Singapore business is a sign of market consolidation and validation in South-east Asia. To recap, GXS Bank acquired Validus' Singapore business on Apr 14 for an undisclosed amount. This expands the digital bank's SME offerings to include Validus' trade financing and working capital loan expertise and customer base in Singapore. Competitor Funding Societies sees Validus' acquisition as a positive, with market consolidation having reduced the pie to a few notable players. This is also a sign of market validation as well, said Kelvin Teo, co-founder and CEO of Funding Societies. 'I think it's actually a very positive development in the market, and it also shows openness of banks, as well as validation towards fintechs and fintech players' existence,' he told The Business Times. The sale of the Singapore business is partly a reflection of the constraints that SME fintech lenders face in the island republic. Despite Validus and Funding Societies having access to the government's Enterprise Financing Scheme, in which Enterprise Singapore shares 50 per cent of the risk, both could not get local traditional banks to fund the loans on their platforms. Instead, Funding Societies and Validus had to rely on international banks to fund the SME loans of Singapore companies. There was more success in raising debt from international banks and funds than local banks, noted Teo. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am SGSME Get updates on Singapore's SME community, along with profiles, news and tips. Sign Up Sign Up 'We got the big chunk of the supply from Citi Hong Kong, keeping that in mind we realised we would never be able to grow the business in Singapore to be as large and attractive as we wanted it to be,' said Nikhilesh Goel, co-founder and CEO of Validus. Even though Validus started out from Singapore, the other markets – Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam – grew much faster. Singapore would only account for a minority of the overall loan book, with about 10 per cent of the monthly loan disbursals for the SME lender. Selling the Singapore business to a bank, where the cost of capital is lower due to the availability of deposits from customers made sense. But rather than sell it to a traditional bank, Validus had to wait for digital challenger banks to emerge. 'This business we felt would do more justice in the hands of a bank who had access to cheaper forms of capital, and could build on our partnerships, teams and models we had created…the big three had shown no inclination to partner or do anything,' said Goel. In any case, the acquisition has helped to bring SME lending platforms such as Funding Societies into the mainstream, said Teo. With digital banks entering the fray, market awareness for SME working capital or trade financing loans can only grow. Tariffs everywhere The impact from tariffs imposed by the US will vary across SMEs in the region, but both Validus and Funding Societies say that customers are still taking up loans from them. For Funding Societies, it has few customers with a direct business relationship with the US, with most having a domestic or regional focus. Other segments of customers would have already pre-planned shorter capital loans to operate and would not be as impacted. The customers looking to take loans for growth are the ones hesitating now amid the uncertain macroeconomic environment, leading to more of a delay than a stop in borrowing. 'The decision-making time becomes longer, they want to wait and see how things play out …the growth opportunity may change and therefore the financing needs change,' said Teo. For Validus, there is no direct impact, as the lender focuses on domestic businesses and their supply chains. These could be local conglomerates or regional companies and their suppliers and distributors, and has nothing to do with the export economy. There will be an indirect impact if tariffs stay, inducing a dampening effect on broader spending in the economy. Validus is exposed to what the middle class is consuming, for instance in Indonesia, the focus sectors are food and beverage, fast moving consumer goods and pharmaceuticals. 'We believe that if we stick to sectors that are consumer staples and non-discretionaries, these kinds of headwinds will always come and pass, if you think about it, this is not the first challenge, there was Covid, the market crash in 2022, then interest rate hikes,' said Goel. Both Funding Societies and Validus will be putting their heads down and working hard on their businesses for the coming year. Funding Societies is planning to steadily grow their loan book across all their markets, as well as the new payments arm into new markets such as Malaysia and Indonesia. The SME lending platform is also looking to diversify funding to be more resilient. 'Really diversifying our funding sources by working with digital banks and other fund partners…the one positive effect of the tariffs is that central banks are looking to cut interest rates, how can we take advantage of that to diversify and lower our cost of funding,' said Teo. Validus on the other hand is working to turn profitable in these turbulent times, after turning operationally profitable in 2024. 'We want to deliver our first year of profits, because if we can do that we would be among the very few tech companies in the region that are actually delivering cash flow…and it would deliver a statement,' said Goel.
Straits Times
14-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
GXS Bank CEO to retire, GX Bank CEO to take over
Both Ms Lai Pei-Si (left) and Mr Muthukrishnan Ramaswami had overseen the Validus acquisition. PHOTO: GXS BANK GXS Bank CEO to retire, GX Bank CEO to take over SINGAPORE - GXS Bank has announced that chief executive Muthukrishnan Ramaswami will be retiring on May 31. His successor will be Ms Lai Pei-Si, CEO of GX Bank, the Malaysian arm of GXS, it said on May 14. Ms Lai will take over as GXS CEO on June 1, with GX Bank deputy CEO Kaushik Chowdhury taking over her role. Mr Ramaswami will remain as a senior adviser to GXS. Ms Lai has been the CEO of GX Bank since 2022, when it received a digital banking licence in Malaysia. The bank has grown to more than a million customers a year since its launch in November 2023, and processed over 124 million transactions. Both Ms Lai and Mr Ramaswami oversaw the recently announced Validus acquisition. 'As a veteran banker with the unique experience of having launched Malaysia's first digital bank, Pei-Si understands the tremendous impact that digital banks can bring to our communities,' said GXS chairman Hsieh Fu Hua. THE BUSINESS TIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Finextra
08-05-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Wealthsimple taps Eventus for compliance
Eventus, a leading provider of comprehensive, at-scale trade surveillance and financial risk solutions, announced that Wealthsimple is among its newest clients deploying the firm's Validus platform for trade surveillance across asset classes. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. Wealthsimple is one of Canada's fastest growing financial services platforms, serving more than three million clients, with $50+ billion in assets across trading, saving and investing. Lia Mathiesen, Senior Director, Compliance and Chief Compliance Officer at Wealthsimple, said: "We have a diversified business model in Canada, so we needed a compliance solution that could support our various business lines and handle a range of asset classes. It also had to be flexible enough to meet our data and operational needs. Working with Eventus allows us to enhance our account supervision and support our compliance efforts.' Eventus CEO Travis Schwab said: 'Eventus supports many of the world's largest retail-focused financial services platforms. As one of Canada's leading platforms for retail investors, Wealthsimple has been extraordinarily successful at thinking outside the box and providing innovative solutions to its clients. We're delighted to work with Lia and the Wealthsimple team to help meet the company's regulatory needs, and as we build further on our client base in Canada and globally.' In recent months, Eventus has signed new clients for trade surveillance, algo monitoring and market risk management across the Americas, as well as Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. They range from market venues including exchanges and alternative trading systems (ATS's), to tier-1 banks, broker-dealers, futures commission merchants (FCMs), trading firms and buy-side participants. The company plans to introduce a wide range of enhancements to its Validus platform in 2025, including a new artificial intelligence (AI) initiative leveraging large language model (LLM) technology.
Business Times
08-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Validus, Fintech Nation launch US$10 million fund for SMEs
[SINGAPORE] Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) financing platform Validus and Fintech Nation, a public benefit corporation, announced the launch of a US$10 million Embedded Finance Fund on Thursday (May 8). This fund has completed its first close and has already deployed the first tranche of capital into projects that provide growth capital for SMEs. The Embedded Finance Fund will focus on embedded finance opportunities across sectors such as supply chain, food and beverages, and consumer goods. 'At Fintech Nation, we believe that SMEs are the foundation of sustainable societies – they are the engines of innovation, employment and local prosperity,' said Vanessa Ho, co-founder of Fintech Nation Fund, one of the funds offered by Fintech Nation. Embedded finance is the integration of financial services into non-financial companies' platforms. There is an unmet credit demand from SMEs across South-east Asia, with the estimated SME credit gap exceeding US$320 billion. The new fund will provide financing via Validus' platform in Thailand – Siam Validus – and Indonesia – Batumbu. Ecosystem partnerships and real-time transactional data will be tapped to make the lending process efficient, scalable and with risk mitigation. 'By combining data-driven underwriting models with innovative funding structures, we can build inclusive financial ecosystems that unlock growth and development for SMEs at every level,' said Milena Naitoh, group head of corporate development and capital markets at Validus.
