KreditBee gets $70 million more in Series C funding round

Mumbai: Fintech lending startup KreditBee, via holding entity Finnov, has raised $70 million (Rs 507 crore) in the second tranche of its Series C funding round co-led by TPG-backed NewQuest Capital Partners and Motilal Oswal Private Equity.

The transaction is a follow-on funding round from the one in February when Finnov
raised $75 million from Azim Premji’s PremjiInvest, Mirae Asset Ventures, Alpine Capital and Arkam Ventures.

With the conclusion of the second tranche, KreditBee’s whole funding from the round has gone as much as $145 million, making it one of many largest funding rounds for an Indian lending startup because the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to a supply, the combination of main and secondary transactions noticed all early-stage Chinese buyers, equivalent to smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp., Shunwei Capital and Kunlun, making an entire exit. These buyers collectively held round 40% stake in the startup earlier than the round.

ET couldn’t confirm the valuation of the enterprise at which the fairness capital was raised.

The recent capital can be used to scale up its lending portfolio past unsecured private loans. The lender is weighing forays into secured lending and different auxiliary providers equivalent to insurance coverage and card-based lending to people and small companies.

“A complex demography like India requires simple, effective and impactful lending solutions; that comes with a deeper understanding of the consumer financing needs of the ecosystem,” stated Madhusudan E, chief government officer of Finnov, in a press release.

Finnov, registered in March 2016, additionally holds Krazybee, a non-banking monetary firm (NBFC). The group launched KreditBee in May 2018 centered on full-stack digital lending for younger professionals.

The platform specialises in private loans and client durables loans as much as Rs 2 lakh with tenures starting from two months to fifteen months. It competes with startups equivalent to MoneyTap, EarlySalary and Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal’s Navi.

In its earlier rounds, the corporate raised $8 million from Shunwei and Xiaomi in 2017. It additionally raised $43 million in fairness from ICICI Bank and Arkam Ventures in its Series B round.

“The requirements of the average value-seeking middle class Indian can only be met by a multitude of lending products. One size doesn’t fit all. We are excited to become a shareholder of Finnov at this juncture…”, stated Amit Gupta, founding associate at NewQuest Capital Partners.

According to Vishal Tulsyan, CEO at Motilal Oswal Private Equity, the choice to speculate in the startup was based mostly on its sound unit economics and scalable mannequin. “With the sustained focus and momentum, we see the platform becoming a mainstream fintech lending solution in the Asian market.”

The firm at the moment has more than 1,200 workers and a person base of over 20 million, it stated. The platform plans to diversify its product providing by venturing into digitally enabled secured loans and insurance coverage. It now plans to broaden its base, focusing on India’s over 180 million new-to-credit prospects, based on Madhusudan.

The transfer comes at a time when the border standoff between India and China and alleged malpractices by a number of short-tenure loan apps in this section have led to a crackdown by Indian regulators on cash lending apps backed by Chinese buyers.

Google just lately
took down more than 150 mortgage apps from its Play Store on the path of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Reserve Bank of India.