Lendingkart Technologies Pvt. Ltd, the technology and digital marketing arm of Ahmedabad- and Bengaluru-based fintech startup Lendingkart, has raised Rs 69.02 crore ($10.74 million) in a bridge round.
Lendingkart issued 23,294 preferential shares, mainly to existing investors, at Rs 29,634 apiece, according to a recent filing by the company with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Bertelsmann India led the round with Rs 22.75 crore while Mayfield Capital pumped in Rs 13.77 crore. Saama Capital invested Rs 7.14 crore, Darrin Capital Rs 2.6 crore and India Quotient Rs 3.25 crore, the filing showed.
New investor Sistema Asia Fund Pte, the Singapore-registered Asia-focused investment fund of Russian business conglomerate Sistema, invested Rs 19.49 crore.
In a press note, the company said the capital will be used to strengthen its loan book and ramp up its technology and analytics capabilities. The money will also be used to reach out to the underserved markets of India.
In a recent interview, Lendingkart CEO Harshavardhan Lunia had told VCCircle that a considerable amount of funds raised by Lendingkart Technologies was used to upgrade the platform, besides beefing up the infrastructure of Lendingkart Finance, the NBFC arm.
With the latest round, the company has raised Rs 534 crore – Rs 243 crore in equity and Rs 291 crore in debt, the company said.
“Lendingkart’s data science driven approach and contactless distribution model is the answer to the needs of the SME sector, which has been overlooked by traditional banking infrastructure,†said Dhruv Kapoor, managing director, Sistema Asia Fund Advisory.
The MCA filing also indicated that the company was set to raise more funds by 31 May, 2018.
When contacted by VCCircle, a company spokesperson confirmed the development and said that Lendingkart was also in the process of raising a Series C round, but declined to comment on whether it would bring new investors on board.
Earlier in the day, The Economic Times had reported that the company was looking to raise up to $80 million over the next four to six months.
Lendingkart Group was founded in 2014 by Lunia and Mukul Sachan. It operates two entities – Lendingkart Technologies Pvt. Ltd and Lendingkart Finance, which was formerly known as Aadri Infin Ltd.
A chartered accountant by qualification, Lunia had earlier founded Domestic Finance and Investment Pvt Ltd, a company involved in designing and arranging credit solutions for small and medium enterprises in India. He also had stints in ICICI Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and HDFC Bank.
Sachan, the co-founder and COO, had worked with Iebua, Futures First Info Services Pvt. Ltd and BSNL.
Lendingkart Technologies handles technology and digital marketing. It has developed tools based on big data analytics that help lenders evaluate a borrower’s creditworthiness. The entity has raised close to $40 million in equity financing from Bertelsmann India, Darrin Capital Management, Mayfield India, Saama Capital, India Quotient, and Anicut Capital.
Lendingkart Finance underwrites loans for small and medium enterprises from its own books. The entity provides collateral-free working capital loans ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh to small businesses. The company claims to have facilitated disbursement of 12,000 loans across more than 700 cities in India.
The NBFC arm has raised more than Rs 100 crore in debt since the beginning of 2017 from a clutch of financial institutions, including YES Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Caspian Impact Investments Pvt. Ltd and Capital First.
Last month, it had raised $10 million in debt funding from Kotak Mahindra Bank and Aditya Birla Financial Services, among others.
Lunia had also recently said that the company was planning to raise an additional Rs 500 crore in debt and disburse Rs 1,500-1,600 crore worth of loans in 2017-18.