Access to safe and secure debt is something that a majority of Indians continue to lack. In fact, debt in India is still under-penetrated as a percentage of gross domestic product, at about 60% and standing at $1.9 trillion, the Indian debt market continues to be underserved.
This is where startups such as CredAvenue come in. It tries to make it easier for companies to access the debt market to raise funds, secure loans, and help banks and NBFCs to lend and track the loans. Its efforts have borne rich fruit, and now, the startup has become the latest Indian firm to enter the unicorn club.
This comes after it raised $137 million in its Series B funding round, led by New York-based VC and private equity firm Insight Partners, B Capital Group, and Dragoneer. The funding round, which also included participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, TVS Capital, and Lightrock, elevated its valuation to $1.3 billion.
The unicorn club has been growing steadily over the past year and had added over 40 new members last year. CredAvenue became the 11th Indian unicorn this year, joining a list that contains names such as Hasura, Mamaearth, Fractal, Darwinbox, Dealshare, and others. Coincidentally, it is the fastest Indian fintech unicorn to date, having reached the milestone just 18 months after its inception.
The online debt marketplace was last valued at $410 million back in September. As part of the transaction, Nikhil Sachdev, managing director at Insight Partners, will join CredAvenue’s board.
CredAvnue has five credit platforms – CredLoan, a term loan and working capital offering for enterprises, CredCoLend, a co-lending platform for non-banks and banks, Plutus, the bond issuance and investment platform for institutional and retail investors, CredSCF, a trade financing platform; and CredPool for end-to-end securitization and portfolio buyouts. Additionally, the company offers services such as portfolio management and monitoring services as a SaaS offering to borrowers and lenders.
Today, it has facilitated loans of over $10.5 billion to date and has over 2,300 corporates, 450 enterprises, and 750 lenders active on the platform as it continues to connect businesses with investors and lenders.
The proceeds from the funding round will be used by CredAvenue to scale its platform and deepen its technological capabilities by investing in technology innovation, AI-ML, and data analytics. Funds will also be deployed towards fuelling an expansion in key global markets and inorganic growth through acquisitions. One of its recent acquisitions includes Mumbai-based artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered debt recovery platform Spocto Solutions.
CredAvenue, with what it claims to be the most comprehensive technology stack in the country to meet the debt cycle of businesses, has raised over $227 million to date.
