Lendingkart Technologies Pvt. Ltd, an online financing platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has raised funding from Anicut Capital LLP to ramp up its lending operations, a top company executive told VCCircle.
The company mopped up Rs 30 crore ($4.6 million) from Anicut through non-convertible debentures, Lendingkart CEO and co-founder Harshvardhan Lunia.
The startup will use the funding to strengthen the operations of unit Lendingkart Finance Ltd, a non-banking finance company that focuses on small businesses in regions that have limited access to traditional banking services.
“The fundraising round will bolster our loan book and enable us to serve the credit needs of many more SMEs,†said Lunia.
Anicut co-founder Ashvin Chadha said traditional financial institutions only meet a part of the huge funding needs of small businesses. “The credit gap creates abundant opportunities for new-age players to become a lender of choice for these underserved SMEs,†he said.
Chennai-based Anicut is led by Chadha and financial services veteran IAS Balamurugan. Anicut floated its maiden SME-focused fund of Rs 300 crore last year and has raised most of the target corpus under the scheme. It invests Rs 10-30 crore across sectors such as financial services, pharmaceutical and engineering services. In March, Balamurugan had said that it had made four investments in businesses located in southern India, committing roughly Rs 100 crore.
Lendingkart was founded in 2014 by Lunia and Mukul Sachan. It provides collateral-free working capital loans to entrepreneurs. It has developed technology tools based on big data analytics that help lenders evaluate borrowers’ creditworthiness. It claims that about 200,000 SMEs have reached out to the company for their credit requirements.
The company has offices in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Mumbai, but offers its services across India.
In June last year, the company raised $32 million in a Series B round led by Bertelsmann India Investments. The round also saw participation from Darrin Capital Management and existing investors Mayfield India, Saama Capital and India Quotient.
In July 2015, Lendingkart had raised $10 million in its Series A round co-led by Saama Capital and Mayfield. In January 2015, it had got Rs 3.8 crore in seed funding from Mumbai Angels member Ashish Goenka, Rhythm Ventures Ltd, Saama Capital, India Quotient and others.
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