The Jordanian FinTech liwwa has closed an $18.5 million pre-Series B round of equity and debt funding, Wamda reported today.
The round included $4.5 million in equity investment led by existing investors, DASH Ventures, Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO, Edgo and Bank al Etihad, in addition to German Development Finance Institution DEG approving an investment of $0.79 million.
The round also included debt contributions from a network of local banks and international development finance institutions; Bank al Etihad increased its debt financing agreement by $5 million and an additional $8.5 million debt facility was raised from the Capital Bank of Jordan. Jordan Kuwait Bank and Triodos Bank extended a $1.1 million and a $2.2 million finance facility respectively, PROPARCO and and Triple Jump also provided loans as part of the raise.
Founded in 2015, liwwa operates the liwwa Investment Platform, a peer-to-peer lending network that bridges the gap between borrowers and investors by creating an online credit marketplace where businesses can borrow capital and investors can earn monthly returns while diversifying their portfolios.
The company will use the new capital to fund its growth and expansion plans.
As reported in Wamda, liwwa’s CEO, Dennis Ardis, said, “with this funding round, we have yet taken another major step towards accomplishing our goals. We will continue to grow as the market grows by bringing in innovative Fintech solutions and cash flow-based lending.”
Unlike some of its Gulf neighbors, Jordan is not a country typically known for its FinTech startups, which are more often found in the larger countries of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.
What’s more, when FinTechs from these countries plan to expand in the region, Jordan has been overlooked in the past. For example, when the Emirati digital bank YAP announced its expansion plans in July, it skipped over Jordan and other neighboring countries in favor of the larger economies found in Egypt and Pakistan.
Read on: UAE-Based Digital Bank YAP Raises $41M to Expand to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt
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