Financial services startup Kaleidofin bags $14 mn in fresh round

By Ajay Ramanathan

  • 18 Sep 2024
Sucharita Mukherjee

Chennai-based financial services company Kaleidofin has raised $13.8 million in an equity round from various investors, and is expecting to receive around $10 million more in this financial year.

Netherlands-based Rabo Partnerships B.V led the round with an investment of $11 million, while existing investors like Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Oikocredit, Omidyar Network India and Flourish also took part.

Going ahead, the company is expecting to receive an equity infusion of $5.5 million from a Europe-based fund by Diwali. Another fund may infuse a further $4.5 million in the company by the end of the current financial year.

Separately, the company is looking to raise $8 million in debt this year. Of this, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation will provide $1 million.

The current investment will help Kaleidofin scale its lending portfolio and expand credit scoring, middleware and risk services through selected partnerships. It will enable rural and agri-focussed lenders including large commercial banks to graduate existing customers to more specialised loans, attract new customers, implement risk-based pricing, and significantly enhance portfolio monitoring.

Established in 2017, the company enables lenders to provide finance for low-income customers working in the informal economy, by combining credit health assessment, middleware rails and risk management dashboards. It offers various financial solutions like lending as a service, credit assessment, and customer engagement.

The financial services platform has raised $37 million since inception.

“We are very close to breaking even. The latest equity infusion will help us break even and build a pipeline,” Puneet Gupta, director and co-founder, Kaleidofin told VCCircle in an interaction.

The company is currently at a monthly burn of Rs 1 crore, and expects to break even on a month-on-month basis by March.

Broadly, the company is looking to facilitate Rs 400-450 crore of new disbursements in the current financial year. Subsequently, it may launch a series C growth funding round by March 2026.