Fintech Lendingkart raises (Dollar) 30 million in 4th round

Bengaluru, Aug 9 : Leading fintech firm Lendingkart Technologies on Friday said it raised (Dollar) 30 million (Rs 212 crore) in fourth (series D-1) round of funding from overseas and Indian venture partners for expanding its lending base.

"The fresh equity will be used to expand our lending base, build technology and strengthen analytics capabilities," the city-based firm in a statement here.

The funding round was led by Fullerton Financial Holdings Pte Ltd, Bertelsmann India Investments (BII) and India Quotient.

Fullerton is the subsidiary portfolio firm of Singapore-based investment firm Temsek and Bertelmann is a venture capital fund, a media, services and education firm.

Set up in 2014, the 5-year-old fintech has cumulatively raised (Dollar) 143 million (Rs 1,002 crore), in four rounds of funding, including (Dollar) 30 million.

"The additional funds will enable us to reach small and under-served micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the verticals and strengthen our technological and analytical expertise," said the statement.

As part of raising equity, the company secured (Dollar) 87 million (about Rs 500 crore) in third round (series C) in February 2018 from Fullerton and (Dollar) 32 million in second or B round in June 2016, including (Dollar) 12 million debt from Bertelsmann and Daring Capital Management.

Initially, the company raised (Dollar) 10 million, including (Dollar) 6 million equity and (Dollar) 4 million debt from Saama Capital, Mayfield Fund, Shailesh Mehta, and Ashvin Chadha in July 2015.

The company's debt financing was Rs 80 crore from Alteria Capital in June 2019, Rs 300 crore from Aditya Birla Sun Life (AMC) and others in July 2018, (Dollar) 7.8 million from Yes Bank in June 2017 and (Dollar) 4.7-million from Anicut Capital in April 2017.

Credit Suisse acted as financial advisor to Lendingkart.

"The fresh equity will help us meet growth opportunities, as micro and small businesses represent a vibrant yet underserved segment of the economy," said Lendingkart co-founder Harshavardhan Lunia in the statement.

Though the company claimed it has disbursed over 60,000 loans to 55,000 MSMEs in 1,300 cities in 29 states and union territories across the country in the last 5 years, it did not disclose the amount spent on lending and revenue generated from interest on it to the small and medium businesses.

"Over the year, Lendingkart's business had a robust growth and has great potential to sustain it.AWe will partner with Lendingkart which has been at the front of making working capital digitally accessible for MSMEs, as India marches its journey towards becoming a digitally enabled country," said Fullerton president Yeo Hong Ping in the statement.

Bertelsmann Managing Director Panka Makkar said on the occasion that digital lending is revolutionising access to capital for MSMEs./Eom/430 words.

--IANS

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Source: IANS