Datasigns Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs online lending platform Shubh Loans, has raised $1.5 million (about Rs 10 crore) in a pre-Series A round from SRI Capital, Japan’s BeeNext and Pravega Ventures.
Shubh Loans will use the funds for building its technology team and market expansion, the Bengaluru-based startup said in a statement.
Sashi Reddi, founder and managing partner at SRI Capital, many large lending companies will be built in the financial-technology segment and Shubh Loans will be one of them.
SRI Capital is a seed-stage investor focussed on software, data, analytics and services. It invests around $500,000 typically, but can go up to $1 million. Its portfolio includes startups such as Fab Hotels, fitness app Healthify, and software-as-a-service providers YellowDig and Zuppler.
Shubh Loans said it had earlier raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from Sanjai Vohra, former managing director at JP Morgan; V. Bunty Bohra, managing director and India CEO at Goldman Sachs; and Peeyush Misra, former partner and MD at Goldman Sachs.
The company was launched by Monish Anand, Rahul Sekar, Anand Barua and Tushar Patel in 2016. Shubh Loans is a vernacular language app that builds a proprietary credit score and report for loan applicants.
Using the Shubh Loans app, users can apply for a loan of up to Rs 2 lakh with a maximum tenure of two years. It has partnered with nine banks and non-banking finance companies.
The startup claims it is growing 50% a month and aims to bring at least 10 lakh people into the banking system. “The lending business in the country is at an inflection point. Our focus is on creative and responsible use of data to bring financial literacy and credit to people who deserve it the most,†it said.
Online lending
The fin-tech sector in India has gained a lot traction in recent years with many players emerging in payments, lending, insurance and personal finance segments. At least 25 fin-tech startups had raised funding between January and May this year, according to a VCCircle analysis. Several startups have emerged in the online lending segment over the past two years, and most of them are targeting small and medium-sized businesses.
Recent deals in the lending segment include KNAB Finance raising a little over Rs 2.5 crore in two rounds from InCred and more than a dozen individual investors. InCred has also invested in fin-tech startup DigiLend Analytics & Technology Pvt Ltd.
Bengaluru-based Billionloans Financial Services raised $1 million in seed funding from Reliance Corporate Advisory Services Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital Ltd, in July.
In June, Delhi-based digital lending platform Stashfin raised $5 million in a pre-Series A funding from Kirloskar Group’s venture capital arm Snow Leopard Ventures, Singapore-based Alto Partners, GrowX Ventures, and a clutch of angel investors. The same month, Ahmedabad- and Bangalore-based Lendingkart raised Rs 50 crore ($7.8 million) in debt from Yes Bank.
Around the same time, online peer-to-peer lending platform LoanMeet secured seed funding from a clutch of investors, including Chinese entrepreneurs. Other startups that have raised funds in the lending space include LoanTap, Innoviti, Fincash, MoneyTap, Loan Frame, and Ftcash.