Fintech, which perhaps is one of the most promising domains for a country like India, is finally seeing some aggressive investment. While peer-to-peer platforms have been raising funds this month, its Capital Float this time — the fintech platform which makes it easier for SMEs to get loans — raising a massive $25 Million.
The round was led by led by US-based Creation Investments Capital Management. The current Series B round also saw participation from existing investors SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital and Aspada Ventures. With this latest funding round, the company’s valuation has crossed the $100 million mark.
Founded in 2013 and based in Bangalore with offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, Capital Float is an online platform that provides working capital finance to SMEs in India. With fresh capital coming in to the company, it is now planning to ramp up its proprietary credit underwriting engine, penetrate new segments, and to introduce new product lines.
It offers flexible, short-term loans that can be used to purchase inventory, service new orders or optimize cash cycles. Borrowers can apply online in minutes, select desired repayment terms and receive funds in their bank accounts in 7 days.
The Bangalore-based company’s mission is to bridge the current gap in the market with innovative and flexible credit products for SMEs, delivered in an efficient and customer-friendly manner.
While the company receives most of the application from the eCommerce sectors, majorly from the seller on eCommerce marketplace like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon, Capital Float also intends to launch products tailored to offline businesses.
According to Gaurav Hinduja, co-founder of the company, Capital Float receives one application every five minutes and more than half of them comes from tier-2 and 3 cities. The loan sizes of those applications are also as small as Rs 50,000 or less.
Commenting about this funding round, Adam J Code, vice-president at Creation Investments Capital Management, said,
A major benefit of Capital Float’s technology is their operational efficiency made possible with automation, meaning a reduced turnaround time for applications which eliminate mundane and error-prone tasks. By next year, the company will be many times larger than it is now.
Sashank Rishyasringa, cofounder of Capital Float, said,
In terms of new segments, we have been looking at driver financing space through our partnership with Uber. B2B marketplaces will also be a strong focus area. We have a partnership with Alibaba and are also partnering with Industrybuying, Tolexo amongst others.
Earlier, in February 2015, the company had raised $13 million in its Series A round from SAIF Partners and Sequoia Capital, to expand into more cities, improve its tech platform, and launch new products. Prior to that, it had raised $1 million in August 2015 and $2 million in June 2015 as a part of seed funding round.
Capital Float will join in a slew of up and coming fintech startups to have recently raised funding, including Faircent, Varthana, Finomena, IndiaLends, etc.
