Jia Raises $3M to Bring On-Chain SME Lending to Southeast Asia

Jia raised $3 million in a seed round led by Coinbase Ventures, with participation from the Stellar Development Foundation, A100x, TCG and Hashed Emergent, bringing total capital raised to $7.3M. The startup combines AI-driven alternative credit scoring with blockchain-based lending (including Stellar’s network) to provide faster, more transparent SME loans across Southeast Asia. For markets and the crypto ecosystem, the round signals continued investor appetite for pragmatic DeFi/crypto infrastructure (stablecoins, tokenized payments) that addresses real economic needs rather than speculation. If Jia scales pilots successfully and navigates regulation, it could boost on-chain capital flows in Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand and increase demand for payments/tokenization rails.