Wortgage Technolgies Pvt. Ltd, which operates financial services platform WeRize on Thursday said it has secured a pre-Series B funding of $15.5 million (Rs 120 crore) from 3one4 Capital, Kalaari Capital, Picus Capital and Orios Venture Partners.
The latest round brings the company’s valuation at $115.5 million, a person close to the company said.
The round also participation from new investors including British International Investment and Sony Innovation Fund.
Bengaluru-based WeRize plans to deploy the fresh proceeds to build new financial products for its customers, scale up technology platform and onboard freelancers in over 1,000 new towns.
With the latest fundraising, the startup has so far raised $25.75 million.
Launched in 2019 by Vishal Chopra and Himanshu Gupta, WeRize sells group insurance, develops customized credit and savings products in more than 1,000 cities.
The company claimed to have clocked annualized revenue run-rate of $10 million as of May 2022.
“Our full-stack approach where we manufacture as well as socially distribute financial services for underserved customers has helped us achieve rapid scale while maintaining solid unit economics. We have reached over $10 million revenue run-rate while doubling our revenues every six months and are just a few months away from being EBITDA positive at group level. These funds will further help in doubling down in our mission to profitably provide financial services to the underserved customers in over 4,000 small cities of India,” said Vishal Chopra and Himanshu Gupta, co-founders of WeRize.
“BII remains committed to backing businesses that are creating tech-based solutions that foster productive, sustainable and inclusive economic opportunities. WeRize’s distribution model will help drive financial inclusion at scale. Our flexible capital will support the company’s ambitions to expand access to credit and other financial services, ensuring underbanked people and low-income families can secure finance that will uplift their lives and livelihood,” said Srini Nagarajan, managing director and head of Asia at British International Investment.
“WeRize has built a phenomenal financial enterprise that has scaled pan India and disbursed highly valuable financial services and at incredibly low cost. We’re super excited to have seen this journey from inception till now and are looking forward to partnering with them again as they scale it even further,” said Anurag Ramdasan, partner at 3one4 Capital.
Established in 1948 as CDC, which was later rebranded as British International Investment beginning April 2022, the investment company has added Southeast Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific region as its new focus areas for business expansion.
Active in India, BII recently committed $89 million to scale clean energy capacity in India where it has an existing portfolio of over $2 billion.
Flooded with liquidity, the fintech space has grown enormously in recent years.
Investment in Indian fintech for the first half of 2021 rose by 25% year on year at $2,054 million with digital banking hogging the limelight, going by a KPMG report which covered private equity, venture capital and M&A deals.