People walk past a major branch of HSBC at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip
With the stock market slowdown making it harder for Southeast Asia’s growth-hungry tech startups to raise funds, they and their venture capital firm backers are turning to a traditional, if often overlooked, source of cash: bank loans.
Startups typically raise money from venture capital firms and larger companies in exchange for a slice of their equity as most of them are unable to obtain large loans from banks, given their short track records and heavy spending in their early stages.
