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Tokyo based small business lender Credit engine has secured $970k in Series Seed funding from 500 Startups and Freebit Investment. Credit Engine provides small businesses with data-driven loans.
Credit Engine was established in July 2016 by CEO Seiichiro Uchiyama and CFO Tatsuki Inoue. After a stint at Shinsei Bank, Uchiyama worked with an NPO offering financing support for small and mid-sized businesses in Sendai after the Tohoku earthquake, and then went on to get his MBA from UCLA. Until last year he was a manager in the Business Promotion Department at Japanese FinTech startup Money Forward. Inoue hails from Accenture, and has worked with Tokyo-based business incubation company Netage (now known as startup-focused VC firm United), among others. He also has experience starting his own mobile CRM service, leading to Yahoo Japan’s president office followed by managing a buyout fund, which had a hand in the formation of Credit Engine.
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