Culum Capital, a Singapore-based lender, has launched its online lending marketplace, where institutional investors can bid to fund supply chain and receivables opportunities the company has originated.

The service is pitched as an alternative to mainstream lending channels, with the company targeting the underserviced SME markets in Singapore. Culum Capital is also on the verge of expanding into China, where it will fund Chinese receivables out of Guangdong.

A simple and user-friendly interface – which GTR has seen – offers proprietary credit scoring and risk management services. Culum is working on a feature that in the future, will offer investors the option of reselling deals they have purchased, back to the marketplace. Transactions on the platform have a maximum tenor of 120 days, with annualised gross returns of up to 25%.

Culum Capital CEO Ginnie Chin, a former trade finance banker with HSBC and Standard Chartered, says that 75% of investors are corporate entities and that it is aiming to have 100% of all deals subscribed within 24 hours.

Speaking to GTR in Singapore recently, she said: “Over the last three years there’s been a lot of fintechs in the crowdlending space. But a lot in the Singapore scene focus on invoice financing, because of the capital market services license required. The fintech scene has also started to see more default in the club lending space.”

She adds: “We believe in the ecosystem and not just a single product solution for any client. Our strength is in the team’s experience. We were formed by ex-corporate bankers, I  myself have 15 years of experience doing trade finance, my chief risk officer has 25 years in corporate banking doing risk and collection. My CTO has 20-plus years in banking and tech. The experience makes us different in how we approach our clients and business modelling. We know how companies and industries behave. That’s why we can provide value-add.”

Culum Capital has recently been incubated by China Merchants Group (CMG) in Shenzhen, which will provide support services for three months as the company enters the Chinese market. After this period of incubation, CMG will have the option of taking an equity stake in the company.

The company already has a roster of deals and investors and is investigating partnerships with fintech companies that would make the lending process more efficient and secure.

*Note: this story was updated on 11 Dec 2017 to reflect the fact that the “deal reselling” function is not yet available.