International bank offering venture debt locally

HSBC has begun offering venture debt in Australia.

The UK-based international bank, which was founded in Hong Kong and has strong business networks in Asia, is making venture debt available locally to late-stage venture capital-backed businesses. HSBC says it offers more flexible capital to finance scaling up and accelerating growth.

HSBC tech sector lead for Australian and New Zealand, Alan Watters, said: “As the leading international bank for innovative companies around the world, we’re excited to strengthen our support for Australia and New Zealand’s ecosystem of innovation and help fast-growing scale-up companies in technology and new economy sectors to expand.

“With the introduction of our venture debt solution, we are able to increase the specialised support we provide to innovative companies who need flexible, long-term and trusted banking relationships to help them reach their next milestone or capitalise on opportunities as they arise.”   

HSBC claims its decades of experience providing banking for scale-up businesses, its global focus on the technology sector and capabilities in 62 countries make it a natural banking choice for scale-up businesses.

In March, HSBC acquired the UK business of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank for £1. That business has been rebranded as HSBC Innovation Banking.

Alongside venture debt facilities, HSBC offers corporate customers specialised banking services designed for innovative companies starting with digital onboarding. The HSBCnet digital platform also includes a range of application programming interfaces (APIs) and digital payment technologies.