Fintech firm BharatPe has become the latest entry into India’s unicorn club after raising $370Mn in a funding round led by Tiger Global.
The Series E funding round values the firm at a massive $2.85Bn, making BharatPe the 19th startup to achieve a valuation of more than $1Bn since the start of 2021.
Dragoneer Investor Group and Steadfast Capital also participated in the new round.
BharatPe operates one of India’s biggest fintech platforms, allowing small merchants across the nation to avail the benefits of digital payments. While India’s internet revolution means that a large chunk of the country has moved online in the past few years, majority of the population still hasn’t turned around. This includes the wide market of small scale shop owners with roadside stalls, who still haven’t managed to tap into digital payments.
BharatPe provides a solution to this problem by enabling these merchants to accept digital payments through QR codes and point of sale machines. It does not charge anything from the vendors for this service and instead, aims to make revenue through lending.
The company already has a presence in about 130 Indian cities, serving about 7 million merchants across the entire country.
Now, the company is looking to take things one step further and build India’s first digital bank with Centrum Financial Services. It has already gotten RBI’s nod for the concept and now, with this new found capital, it can make this cyberpunk-like idea imto reality.
“We now have US$ 0.5B cash on books and are extremely well capitalized to deliver on our mandate to build India’s first truly Digital Bank. Rarely does one witness the original thesis play out without any pivot,” said Ashneer Grover.
In this new digital bank, BharatPe and Centrum Financial Services will be equal partners.
Last but not least, Suhail Sameer has been appointed as the CEO of BharatPe, announced by Grover who said, “I am happy to appoint Suhail Sameer as the CEO in recognition of stupendous business growth he has delivered during the last 1 year and his ability to lead from the front.”
BharatPe is looking to aggressively scale its business in the next two years.
