Startups, investors banking on good old loans amid funding winter

Startups, investors banking on good old loans amid funding winter

People walk past a major branch of HSBC at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

With the stock market slowdown making it harder for Southeast Asia’s growth-hungry tech startups to raise funds, they and their venture capital firm backers are turning to a traditional, if often overlooked, source of cash: bank loans.