InCred Management & Technology Services Pvt. Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of InCred Financial Services Ltd, has acquired Bengaluru-based Qbera, an online lender that offers unsecured loans.
Mumbai-based InCred said in a statement Qbera founder and CEO Aditya Kumar will join the company as part of the transaction. He will continue to head Qbera and will also oversee InCred’s personal loan business.
Anuj Sachdev, Qbera co-founder and vice president for product, has taken on an advisory role.
InCred didn’t disclose the financial details of the transaction. However, The Economic Times pegged the deal value in a range of $10-15 million (Rs 76-114 crore at current exchange rates).
InCred said the move will help it add to its digital distribution capabilities. It added that Qbera will benefit by being able to access InCred’s expertise and partnerships in the lending segment.
“The Qbera acquisition importantly marks the launch of InCred’s platform business – a first of its kind for an NBFC of our size in India,” InCred founder and CEO Bhupinder Singh said.
Qbera, operated by Ant Creditex Technologies Pvt. Ltd in 2015, provides its services through an end-to-end digital platform. Its primary focus has been on consumers that have been overlooked or underserved by traditional banks or non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).
In September 2018, the company raised Rs 21 crore (around $3 million) from E-City Ventures, a unit of Essel Group. According to VCCEdge, the data research arm of Mosaic Digital, Qbera’s other investors include Kuber Financial, Sigma Infosolutions and Velli Investments Pvt. Ltd.
InCred’s financial services play
The move is the latest by InCred, set up by Singh in 2016, to make a play for being a full-stack financial services company in the country.
In March, Singh told VCCircle that InCred Finance operates in the lending business, including lending to consumers and micro, small and medium enterprises, while sister company InCred Capital operates in the institutional and wealth business sectors.
The company has made acquisitions to scale up its operations, hired people and increased its presence across different segments. In April, for example, it roped in debt capital markets executives from a financial services firm headquartered in Mumbai.
Late last year, InCred Capital had agreed to acquire the West Asian wealth management business of L&T Finance Holdings for Rs 18 crore ($2.5 million then) plus cash and equivalent.
Investors in InCred include the likes of Dutch development bank FMO, Invesco, Oaks Asset Management Pvt. Ltd and UBR Capital.
