Deal of the Week: Cutting edge fintech gets $50 million from Hong Kong billionaire

A Hong Kong fintech group set up by co-founders of Skype and LU.com has just received a big cash injection from one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest individuals.

Peter Lee Ka Kit, co-chairman of Henderson Land Development and the eldest son of Lee Shau-kee, one of the world’s richest men, together with an Israeli-venture group have signed a check for $50 million for Oriente in a Series B funding round. Lee Ka Kit led the round and it was probably directed through his investment group Successful Lotus Ltd. 

Oriente was founded by  Hubert Tai, Geoffrey Prentice, and Lawrence Chu in 2016 as a fintech committed to bringing low-cost credit to communities in Asia traditionally underserved by the financial sector. 

Tai, Prentice, and Chu have some serious experience behind them, with Tai a co-founder of LU.com, a big online wealth management platform in China. Prentice was one of the co-founders of Skype. Chu runs a private investment office called BlackPine, which seeded Oriente.  

Already Oriente has attracted $175 million in venture funding, including capital from JG Summit Holdings, the investment/holding group of John Gokongwei, one of the Philippines wealthiest individuals, and Berjaya, the holding group controlled by Malaysian billionaire Vincent Tan.