Ahmedabad- and Bangalore-based Lendingkart, an online lending platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has raised Rs 50 crore ($7.8 million) in debt from Yes Bank, it said in a statement.
The startup will use the funds to strengthen its loan book and expand operations to Tier 3 cities, where traditional credit avenues for SMEs are in short supply.
The funds were raised by Lendingkart Finance Ltd, the company's non-banking financial company (NBFC) arm.
Lendingkart finances the loans from its own books as opposed to most players in the space that connect borrowers and lenders. Lendingkart Finance has disbursed more than 11,000 loans to over 7,500 SMEs so far, the statement added.
The new round of debt financing comes barely two months after the fin-tech startup raised Rs 30 crore ($4.6 million then) from Anicut Capital LLP.
Founded in 2014 by Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan, Lendingkart provides collateral-free working capital loans to entrepreneurs. It has developed technology tools based on Big Data analytics that help lenders evaluate borrowers’ creditworthiness. The company's website claims that the online loan application process takes only 15 minutes, and it takes a maximum of three days to disburse the loan.
Lendingkart, which offers services in over 650 cities across the country, claims that so far over 2 lakh SMEs have reached out to it seeking credit.
In June last year, it 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.
Last month, Mumbai-based Paysense Services India Pvt. Ltd, which offers personal loans, raised $5.3 million in Series A funding led by Singapore-based venture capital firm Jungle Ventures.
In the same month, Social Worth Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs online lending platform EarlySalary, raised $4 million in Series A funding from IDG Ventures India and mortgage lender Dewan Housing Finance Corp.
In April, Bangalore-based lending firm Capital Float raised $2.3 million (Rs 15 crore) from Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd’s NBFC arm.
In March, Mumbai-based SME and consumer lending platform InCred Finance raised Rs 25 crore from private equity firm Paragon Partners.
