SURGING valuations for Chinese fintech startups are about to turn micro-lending tycoon Luo Min into the country’s latest IPO billionaire.

Luo, 34, founder and chief executive of online loan provider Qudian Inc., owns about a fifth of the company, which hopes to raise as much US$825 million in a U.S. initial public offering (IPO) next week.

The price range values the business at a minimum of US$6.3 billion based on the shares it will have outstanding after the offering, and gives Luo a net worth of at least US$1.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

China attracted the lion’s share of the US$10.2 billion in venture capital that flowed into fintech businesses globally through September 2016, a Citigroup report found. Chinese companies received 46 percent of that funding in the same period, putting them ahead of their U.S. peers.

Qudian, created three years ago, targets the millions of young people in China under-served by financial firms and in need of credit for discretionary spending. The company makes its loans almost entirely via mobile devices.

In the first half of 2017, the Beijing-based business was China’s leading provider of consumer credit online, according to a report from consultant Oliver Wyman that was commissioned by the company.

Qudian handled 38.2 billion yuan (US$5.6 billion) in transactions for 7 million active borrowers in that period, it said in its initial offering prospectus. Nearly 60 percent of its transactions in 2016 had annualized interest rates above 36 percent. The company had revenue of 1.44 billion yuan in 2016, a 514 percent increase from the year before.

The Qudian offering follows the IPO for ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co., a consumer insurer selling policies that protect everything from smartphones to cars. ZhongAn shares jumped as much as 18 percent on the first day of trading late last month. (SD-Agencies)