Lendela, Asia Pacific’s dominant loan matching platform, today announced the appointment of Kent Huang as Chief Financial Officer and Steven Wong as Chief Technology Officer.
With decades of international leadership experience across the realms of finance and fintech, Kent and Steven’s appointments mark a significant step in Lendela’s executive leadership expansion as it continues to scale its unique reverse auction model across Australia and Asia Pacific.
Lendela’s reverse auction model flips the script on lending by enabling lenders to bid for borrowers and offer them their most competitive financing option. This allows borrowers to access fair, transparent loan options while lenders gain more efficient customer acquisition at a lower cost, creating a win-win for all parties.
Building for scale
Having spent over 15 years in leadership roles across high-growth startups in the region, Steven’s track record in scaling tech-driven financial platforms positions him well to scale Lendela’s technology infrastructure on the systems and organisational levels and across its markets.
"The reverse auction model is a breakthrough in lending that has already created a much more transparent and competitive space where both borrowers and lenders benefit,” said Steven Wong, CTO at Lendela. “Lenders can acquire customers more efficiently while borrowers gain access to better, more tailored financing options. I’m very excited to help Lendela optimise this experience at scale, ensuring technology continues to enable informed financial decisions in Australia and APAC."
With nearly two decades of financial leadership experience at some of the world’s most prominent fintech and financial services companies including PayPal and Intuit, Kent will steer financial strategy and management, risk management, and regulatory compliance to support Lendela’s rapid growth, ensuring the company maintains its strong growth trajectory while upholding financial integrity and transparency.
"A fintech’s story isn’t and shouldn’t be just about growth—it’s also about sustainable, responsible scaling,” said Kent Huang, CFO at Lendela. “Lendela is at the forefront of this shift, ensuring both borrowers and lenders thrive in an ecosystem built on transparency and efficiency. My goal is to drive financial governance and strategy that supports long-term expansion while reinforcing trust in digital lending across Australia and Asia Pacific."
A major strategic step
With Lendela expanding across Asia Pacific, Kent and Steven’s leadership will be pivotal in scaling the company’s operations, maintaining Lendela’s dominant position in the region’s lending landscape, and ensuring that lending in the region remains transparent, fair, and efficient for both borrowers and financial institutions.
"With Steven’s track record in fintech product innovation and Kent’s extensive experience in financial leadership, we are well-positioned to scale sustainably while staying true to our mission of making borrowing fairer and more transparent," said Nima Karimi, CEO & Founder of Lendela. "Lendela has created a unique model where consumers make better financial decisions and lenders gain access to a wider pool of qualified borrowers at lower acquisition costs, and I know that Steven and Kent will be instrumental in scaling this win-win model across the region."
Steven will be based in Kuala Lumpur, while Kent will operate from Singapore.
Empowering borrowers & lenders
Since the start of 2024, Lendela has grown its headcount by nearly 30 percent with a series of hires across all levels. The fintech platform has facilitated over 400,000 loan applications to date and counts well over 100 lenders across the region as partners, including some of the most recognisable lenders in Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong—proving the model’s ability to empower borrowers and lenders alike.
By providing borrowers with real, personalised loan options instead of generic advertised rates, Lendela has saved its users a combined A$50 million in interest on average in 2024 alone, helping hundreds of thousands of borrowers secure their most competitive financing options at a time when Australians have had to borrow to cope with an unprecedented rise in cost of living.