Zetl raises $700K seed round to power SME growth post-COVID

Hong Kong, July 12th 2021 - Zetl, a Hong Kong and Singapore-based fintech startup providing working capital, payroll and growth financing, has announced today it has raised a US$700,000 amount in seed funding to help with its APAC expansion.

“We’ve seen incredible demand from services based SMEs who are now switching gears from survival to growth mode as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. This new round will help us further develop our solutions to fund their growth ambitions”, said Shan Han, Co-founder and CEO of Zetl.

This round has attracted capital from HRTech-focussed The Workplace Accelerator, angel investors and family offices. The funds will be used for product development and expansion into other regions in APAC with a goal to grow its customer base by 500% in 2021.

The fintech startup is currently post-revenue and has seen success last year in Hong Kong and Singapore by offering flexible financing solutions to the recruitment and consultancy industry, who typically face limited financing options given their ‘asset-light’ nature. Zetl grew by 300% in 2020, which allowed them to quickly find product-market fit. They have payroll financed over 1,000 SME employee’s wages.

Zetl’s financing solutions incorporate cloud accounting and payroll integrations together with proprietary credit scoring to ensure that companies can focus on growing their business and pay their staff on time. Their products include invoice financing, credit facilities, and payroll financing. Zetl will also offer earned wage advances and more banking products in the near future.

The co-founders, Shan Han, Matthew Roberts and Mark Francis, realised there was a gap in the market for tailored financing solutions for high-growth service-based SMEs to ensure wage continuity each month. They have seen first-hand from a fintech, credit, and HR perspective that this segment is under-served but expected to see growth accelerate with the adoption of a more flexible staffing market post-Covid.

Han adds, “We are addressing the funding needs for a US$360bn market that is growing 12% annually. We believe that the new way of working post-Covid has only increased the demand for better financing options for service sector businesses in APAC. Our recent seed round has allowed us to expand into SE Asia with Australia and Japan in the pipeline. Furthermore, after going through the Workplace Accelerator, we are now well-placed to grow our customer base in various markets as we seek to finance the next generation of businesses in APAC”.

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About Zetl

Zetl helps staffing agencies, consultancies, and other services businesses manage their monthly operating expenses by providing working capital, payroll and growth financing. The company has been operating in Hong Kong and Singapore since 2019 and is part of the Cyberport Incubation Programme.