Non-banking financial company Prest Loans has raised Rs 3.7 crore ($570,000) capital to expand operations and strengthen its technology platform, the New Delhi-based company said in a statement.
Prest loans was incorporated as Lord Krishna Financial Services Ltd in 1992 and was acquired by financial market veteran Ashok Mittal in July from its founders Anil Bansal, Sunil Bansal and Sushil Bansal for Rs 2.5 crore.
The latest capital infusion has come from Manish Poddar, a director at the company, and angel investors Arun Garg and Parmeshwar Sharma, among others. Earlier, Mittal had infused Rs 75 lakh into the company after acquiring it.
“This round of fundraising shall help us strengthen our balance sheet and, in turn, leverage more to meet the robust demand we are witnessing,” CEO Ashok Mittal said.
The company has also secured debt funding from AU Small Finance Bank. “With this round we shall be able to raise more debt funding from other institutions. We expect good offtake in the next three to six months,” Mittal said.
Mittal, who was previously worked with Emkay and Karvy groups in senior-level positions, said Prest Loans has aggressive expansion plans and aims to disburse loans worth Rs 100 crore within three years to small businesses.
Prest Loans does not depend only on financial information provided by prospective borrowers but also uses an algorithm to analyse data to arrive at the amount, tenure and rate of interest for the loans. It claims that the decision to approve the loan is taken within minutes and that the loan is disbursed within three days.
Prest Loans offers small businesses loans that include unsecured business loans as well as short- and long-term secured loans. The average ticket size is Rs 3 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 15 lakh, respectively, for these loans.
