Social Worth Technologies Pvt. Ltd, the operator of online lending platform EarlySalary, has raised $110 million (about Rs 879 crore) in a Series D round of funding co-led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Piramal Capital, said a top company executive told VCCircle.
The latest round pegs the company's valuation at around $266 million, as per VCCEdge's calculations.
The fresh funds will be used to enter new markets, strengthen senior leadership roles and towards skill upgradation, Akshay Mehrotra, co-founder and chief executive officer, EarlySalary, said in an interview.
The startup is also planning to go public in the next four to five years, he added.
EarlySalary had last raised Rs 75 crore in 2020 in a Series C round led by Eight Roads Ventures and Chiratae Ventures. Prior to this, it had raised Rs 100 crore in a Series B round led by Eight Roads Ventures India in 2018. Existing investors IDG Ventures India, Dewan Housing Finance Corp Ltd and seed investor Ashok Agarwal also took part in the round.
“By providing short-duration loans at competitive rates, EarlySalary is empowering to finance things from upskilling courses to short-term cash flow mismatches,” said Akshay Tanna, partner at TPG.
“Digital lending is emerging in India, and we believe that EarlySalary is well-positioned to serve the credit needs of millions of underserved but aspirational Indians,” said Niren Shah, managing director at Norwest Venture Partners.
Founded by Mehrotra and Ashish Goyal in 2015, EarlySalary offers a mobile app that allows salaried persons to avail instant loans for an average tenure of 30 days or till the next salary cycle. Users can avail the loans as either salary advances or credit card cash withdrawals. The company claims to have more than 10 million app downloads with 80% of the users being repeat customers. It is present in 150 cities and plans to add 100,000 new users every month.
In 2018, the Pune-based firm, which competes with LoanTap and PaySense, had acquired Mumbai-based checkout financing startup CashCare for an undisclosed amount. In February this year, it entered the healthcare buy now pay later (BNPL) segment.
“Growth is our concern area and in two years, we are looking to achieve Rs 200 crore profit after tax (PAT),” Mehrotra said, adding that EarlySalary has disbursed 2.8 million loans worth Rs 7,500 crore within six years of launching the mobile app.
Globally, digital lending has also attracted strong investor interest with record funding of $21 billion last year, a 90% rise from 2020, according to CB Insights, which tracks private investments. Cheap internet plans and proliferation of online payments have given a fillip to India’s fintech industry, leading to a spurt in startups offering instant loans over a mobile app.