Lendingkart Finance Ltd, the NBFC arm of Ahmedabad- and Bengaluru-based fin-tech startup Lendingkart, has raised around Rs 162 crore ($24.9 million) through a mix of debt and equity, a person aware of the development told VCCircle.
The company raised this sum between August and September this year in multiple tranches from financial institutions and NBFCs including IFMR Capital, Capital First, Tata Capital Financial Services Ltd (TCFSl) and Manappuram Finance Ltd, a company spokesperson said.
Out of the Rs 162 crore, the NBFC also received Rs 60 crore ($9.2 million) from its technology and digital marketing arm, Lendingkart Technologies Pvt Ltd through debt (Rs 20 crore) and equity infusion (Rs 40 crore).
In September, Lendingkart Technologies had raised Rs 69.02 crore ($10.74 million) in a bridge round from Bertelsmann India, Mayfield Capital, Saama Capital, Darrin Capital, India Quotient and new investor Sistema Asia Fund Pte.
In August, Lendingkart Finance raised $10 million (Rs 67 crore) in debt funding from a group of financial institutions, including Kotak Mahindra Bank and Aditya Birla Financial Services.
Being the NBFC arm of the business which underwrites the loans, Lendingkart Finance has raised debt funding at frequent intervals. In June, it had raised Rs 50 crore ($7.8 million) in debt from Yes Bank and another Rs 30 crore ($4.6 million) from Anicut Capital LLP through non-convertible debentures in April.
Lendingkart Group was founded in 2014 by Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan. It operates two entities – Lendingkart Technologies Pvt. Ltd and Lendingkart Finance, which was formerly known as Aadri Infin Ltd.
A chartered accountant by qualification, Lunia had earlier founded Domestic Finance and Investment Pvt Ltd, a company involved in designing and arranging credit solutions for small and medium enterprises in India. He also had stints at ICICI Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and HDFC Bank.
Lendingkart Finance underwrites loans for small and medium enterprises from its own books. The entity provides collateral-free working capital loans ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh to small businesses. The company claims to have facilitated disbursement of 12,000 loans across more than 700 cities in India.
The NBFC arm has raised more than Rs 100 crore in debt since the beginning of 2017 from a clutch of financial institutions, including YES Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Caspian Impact Investments Pvt. Ltd and Capital First. During its bridge round announcement, the company had stated that it had raised a total of Rs 291 crore (Rs 44.7 million) in debt.
In an interaction with VCCircle in June this year, Lunia said that the company was planning to raise an additional Rs 500 crore in debt and will disburse Rs 1,500-1,600 crore worth of loans in 2017-18.
