Digital lending platform FlexiLoans Technologies Pvt. Ltd has acquired Mumbai-based supply chain financing platform CreditPeriod.com for an undisclosed sum.
“The CreditPeriod acquisition strengthens our position to serve the deeply underserved supply chain market for the SME eco-system,†said Deepak Jain, co-founder, FlexiLoans.
As part of the deal, CreditPeriod co-founder Venkatesh Viswanathan, who has been a financial forensics professional, has joined the FlexiLoans team to drive its supply chain finance initiatives.
Launched in February 2015, Creditperiod.com, a business-to-business credit wallet, helps small and medium enterprises procure goods and services on a 90-day credit, while sellers get their payments cleared immediately.
“This acquisition will enable us to underwrite loans using real-time ERP integrations with SMEs to solve the credit-trust problem, thereby helping SMEs procure goods and services at significantly cheaper costs. The acquisition gives us access to technology that is custom built for supply chain financing,†said Abhishek Kothari, co-founder, FlexiLoans.
The acquisition, however, seems to have taken place earlier this year. Vishwanathan’s LinkedIn profile says he had joined FlexiLoans in March as assistant vice-president, sales and products. While, the other co-founder Ajinkya Kulkarni had joined Kalaari-backed fintech firm CreditVidya in February 2017, according to his LinkedIn page.
FlexiLoans.com was started by Jain, Kothari, Manish Lunia and Ritesh Jain in 2016. Several veterans from the financial services space, including Sanjay Nayar, chief executive of KKR India, and Vikram Sud, former head of operations and technology at Citibank, had invested Rs 100 crore in FlexiLoans last October.
The startup caters to the working capital needs of unserved and underserved small and medium businesses. It offers an average loan size of Rs 2-4 lakh and has developed a proprietary credit engine, which vets the application form and makes the loan decision within 24 hours. FlexiLoans services over 70 cities and has partnerships with over 50-plus supply chain corporates and e-commerce players.