Digital payments firm BharatPe, which services offline retailers and businesses, has raised $75 million (approximately Rs 538.89 crore at current exchange rates) in its Series C funding led by Coatue Management and Ribbit Capital.
Existing investors Insight Partners and Steadview Capital also participated in the round. Others that contributed to the funding round include the US-based venture capital firm Amplo, according to regulatory filings by the company.
The New Delhi-based firm will use the capital to fund its non-banking financial company (NBFC), which is currently awaiting approval from the Reserve Bank of India for a license, The NBFC will be used to offer credit lines to its small merchant base, The Economic Times reported.
The latest capital infusion comes just under a month after reports suggested that the New York-based Coatue was in talks to lead a round of funding of up to $100 million in BharatPe. Ribbit, Insight, and Steadview were also expected to take part in the round.
BharatPe has issued a total of 6,917 shares to these investors at a premium of Rs 7.73 lakh per share. It has also issued one equity share at the same premium to Coatue, the regulatory filings shows.
VCCircle has reached out to BharatPe on the details of the funding and will update this report accordingly.
BharatPe, operated by Resilient Innovations Pvt. Ltd, was founded in 2018 by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani. The company service allows its customers to track payments in real-time besides conducting other financial services. BharatPe says its platform has signed up over three million merchants in 30 cities, and that it is seeking to double its overall base by March next year.
It also has a quick turnaround process when it comes to raising capital for its operations and expansion. It raised $50 million (around Rs 358.5 crore) in its Series B round in August last year. The round was led by Ribbit Capital and Steadview. Investors such as Sequoia Capital, Beenext and Insight Partners also participated in the funding round.
The Series B infusion came just five months after its Series A round, where it raised $15.5 million (around Rs 107 crore). It had previously raised $2 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital India and the Singapore-based Beenext in October 2018.
Deals in the fintech segment
The fintech segment has seen heavy investor activity for startups across all stages. Startups in verticals such as wealth management and neo-banking have pocketed large cheques. Companies in the space are seeking to apply a technological angle to traditional financial products, and bring more people into formal financial structures.
Earlier this month, payments company DotPe Pvt. Ltd raised $8 million (around Rs 56.8 crore) in its seed funding round. The round was led by payments company PayU and Chinese conglomerate Fosun International. Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal along with PayU executive Amrish Rau also participated in that investment.
Last month, escrow-focussed digital payments platform Escrowffrr raised $150,000 from Inflection Point Ventures, a community of chief financial officers and senior professionals. Similarly, In December, mutual fund investments startup WealthBucket raised about $2.52 million in a pre-Series A funding round from Sierra Leone-based firm North Star Enterprises (SL) Ltd and Vinod Khatumal, an angel investor.
