Abound Capital: Innovative Financing in SouthEast Asia
Scripture is full of cautions against the love of money. We are designed by God to love Him and depend on His provision and to love others as ourselves. But it is so easy to misplace this design and fall in love with the things of this world and allure of money (Matthew 6:24). We can forget to trust Him when we have more than enough to satisfy every desire. Some Christians over the centuries have dealt with this tension by shunning money and possessions altogether, taking a vow of poverty like Saint Francis. But what if dealing with money and capital markets is part of one’s calling?
Venture debt firm Abound Capital, has worked hard to build their firm to maximize profit for investors without sacrificing their values and faith. A Singapore-based company with a mission to support entrepreneurs in the emerging markets of Southeast and South Asia, Abound Capital provides alternative funding in the form of loans to startups and local entrepreneurs who are overlooked by banks and other traditional investors, because of the high-risk nature of their ventures. In the world of finance, there are countless lending and financing companies, but what sets but what sets Abound Capital apart is how and why they do their work.
The Big Why: Abounding in Love
The company’s namesake comes from the first chapter of Philippians, where Paul writes of his hope that the Philippian church’s “love may abound.” But how can a company focused on creating entrepreneurial abundance stay rooted to the seemingly antithetical call for love abundance?
“We have this mission to share God's abundant love,” shares JinA Bae, one of Abound Capital’s co-founders and managing partners. “To be able to share his love and his grace and his mercies and his provision through the responsible use of capital.”
Bae and her colleagues believe that investing in and building up burgeoning startup ecosystems is an opportunity to glorify God. First, thriving markets directly affect the wellbeing of the communities they are situated within, welcoming progress in the developing nations within the region. Plus, business is inherently relational, giving Bae and her partners the opportunity to advance God’s kingdom through each and every professional interaction.
The Abound Capital Difference: Founder-Friendly Venture Debt
Jared Baragar, an American serial entrepreneur based in Indonesia for nearly a decade before moving to Singapore in 2020, is helping build Abound Capital along with Bae and the two other co-founders, Nathan Sivagananathan and Joon Cho. His desire for Abound is to create the positive impact possible from committing to intentional business practices within emerging startup ecosystems.
“[After moving to Singapore,] I had the entrepreneurial bug biting at me again, wanting to do something new,” he explains. “And I was still very much led to the mission of lending to businesses in Southeast Asia.” However, Baragar didn’t want to do so in a traditional venture-backed structure, within which a focus on short-term loans makes it difficult for investors to see the long-term impact.
“I really wanted to be part of something that we could do for 10 years, 20 years, and really see the impact over time and really know that we were actually making a difference, not just seeing it on the surface.” he continues. At Abound, their strategy is to utilize Venture Debt, which is a “medium-term financing solution tailored to venture-backed startups.” By relying on longer term lengths for their financing, space is created for both more meaningful relationships with clients and the opportunity to mentor new entrepreneurs into higher levels of stability, success, and innovation within their ventures. Additionally, Abound works to keep their financing terms “founder-friendly” by committing to helping owners retain more control of their own companies and blending debt funding with equity.
Though only 3 of the 4 employees at Abound are Christians, the company is still intentionally structured with biblically-based values and practices. Bae shares about the weekly Bible study the employees engage in and their choice of a family-friendly co-working space from which they base their office. Baragar adds that they not only wanted to be intentional about their business model and its impact but, even more, with the internal structure of how the company is run.
“Externally, we definitely want to have an impact on our portfolio companies or even our investors in the way we do business and letting our faith be known in ways that are attractive,” Baragar says. “But we also want to focus on how we do things internally, how we run the company, how we care for each other and our employees.”
One of the ways in which Abound commits to this biblical intentionality in their company structure is through a written Spiritual Integration Plan, which includes a list of ten principles they seek to uphold as a company. Take a moment to look through these 10 principles (shared below with their permission) and consider what place these biblical pillars hold in your own place of work. Whether you are in the position to implement these principles as company-wide policy or simply through your own personal work ethic, it is vital that we remember that God is on the throne even in our workplaces.
Just as Paul prayed this over the Philippian church, we pray this over Abound Capital and the work they are doing for the Kingdom in Southeast and South Asia:
It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)
We pray it, too, over each of the 200+ companies in our portfolio, as well as over our investors, our prayer-partners, and our readers like you.
Abound Capital’s Values & Principles*
Truth: Always be sincere and truthful.
Humility: Serve one another, remembering that who we are and all we have are gifts.
Generosity: Pay it forward first without expecting in return.
Faithfulness: Honor promises and commitments made to one another.
Abundance: Search for a solution to grow together, not confined to the zero-sum game mindset.
Patience: Grow and practice endurance (patience in hope) and forbearance (patience in love).
Kindness & Mercy: Be gentle and kind in words and actions. Always give one another the benefit of the doubt; give second chances.
Excellence: Seek wisdom and work with all of our hearts and minds to excel in all we do.
Diligence: Work diligently by focusing on completing daily tasks and missions.
Responsiveness: Always respond to an outreach, on time and in a thoughtful manner.
*This list is the intellectual property of Abound Capital Pte. Ltd.
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