Lendingkart, a digital lending platform for startups and SMEs has today announced closure of a whopping INR 205 crores ($32 million) in its latest Series B round of funding. The round has been led by German mass media giant Bertelsmann Indian Investments, with participation from Darrin Capital Management.
This round also saw participation of existing investors, including Mayfield India, Saama Capital and India Quotient. In this funding round, the company has raised $20M via equity while the other $12M have been raised as debt.
This is one of the biggest funding rounds for the company and takes their total investment to a good 260 crore ($41 million). The company had previously raised $10 million from the same set of existing VC firms, along with other private investors.
The funds infused into the company will be employed for strengthening its data science capabilities, enhancing its technology platform as well as infrastructure for improved mobile capabilities. It also aims to expand its lending capabilities further across India. The company has been registering a 20 per cent MoM growth in the past year, arranging loans for customers in over 135 cities across 22 states.
Commenting on the huge investment received from Bertelsmann, Harshvardhan Lunia, CEO and co-founder of Lendingkart Groups says that,
Our investors share our vision and have been instrumental in our growth journey. With Bertelsmann onboard, we look forward to leveraging its deep understanding of global financial products as well as Internet Businesses. With Financial Services leaders such as Arvato Financial Solutions as a part of the Group, Bertelsmann has strategic insights of the Fintech space with end to end process knowledge and expertise in digital origination.
Started in 2014 by ex-Banker, Harshvardhan Lunia and ex-ISRO scientist, Mukul Sachan — Lendingkart — is aimed at providing simple, instant and flexible financing solutions to borrowers. The Ahmedabad-based company has thus partnered with leading online marketplaces, like Flipkart, Snapdeal and trade associations to service both online and offline SMEs equally.
Users can apply for a loan at their own convenience, using their website, mobile or app platform. Lendingkart then uses its proprietary algorithm with over 2200 variables to assess the applicant’s credit worthiness. And if the user is eligible for a loan, the funds are delivered to his account within 24 hours.There is no collateral, no physical offices and no physical verification staff members on the ground.
Now, the company believes that Bertelsmann will add a fresh perspective n digital distribution and data driven risk assessment which will help them become a leading lending platform for SME’s in India.
Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director, Bertelsmann Indian Investments, shares his enthusiasm on being a part so this funding round and adds that,
We are excited to partner with Lendingkart Group to build the next generation lending company in India and we believe lending is a large market which will see a lot of innovation. Lendingkart is a strong example of such innovation where technology and data can provide monetary access to the remote corners of India.
Other Indian credit lending platform have also recently bagged huge investments from marquee investors. This includes IndiaLends which raised funds in pre-Series A round a couple months ago, and CreditMantri which raised $2.5M from IDG Ventures & others and Capital Float.
