Bengaluru-based Rupeek, which operates an online marketplace for gold loans, has raised $6.83 million (Rs 44 crore) in a fresh funding round led by Accel Partners.
While Accel Partners put in $5 million (Rs 32.55 crore), existing investor Sequoia Capital invested the remaining, Rupeek’s filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) revealed.
In January 2017, Sequoia invested $2 million in Rupeek, according to the filings. Between 2015 and 2016, the startup also raised $346,000 (Rs 2.23 crore from a clutch of investors including Anand Chandrasekaran (former CPO, Snapdeal), Anupam Mittal (founder, People Group), Kunal Shah (founder, Freecharge) and Ravi Garikipati (CTO, Flipkart).
The latest round takes the total funding raised by the startup to $9.25 million (Rs 59.6 crore), as per the filings. It could not be ascertained whether this is the company’s Series B round or part of a larger funding round.
As per VCCircle estimates, the company is likely to be valued at $31 million (around Rs 200 crore) post money, indicating a five-fold jump from its valuation when it raised the earlier funding round.
Email queries sent to Sumit Maniyar, co-founder and CEO of Rupeek, did not elicit a response.
In September 2017, The Economic Times reported that the company was set to raise $12 million in an early stage of round led by Accel Capital and Lok Capital.
Rupeek , founded by Maniyar and Ashwin Soni, was incorporated in 2015. Through Rupeek’s Android app, consumers can apply for gold loans by providing details including identity and address proof as well as a cancelled cheque leaf. Once the documents are verified, the money is credited to the applicant’s bank account. The company claims it can process and disburse the loan within an hour.
Operational only in Bengaluru, the three-year-old startup accepts only gold jewellery and does not accept gold coins or bars as a pledging asset. It currently offers one-year tenure on the gold loans, according to its website. The firm has tied up with Federal Bank and Karnataka-based Yogakshemam Loans Pvt. Ltd.
Customers can also apply for loans by calling Rupeek which then sends a representative to the consumer’s doorstep to help apply and process the loan. While Rupeek’s gold loans marketplace is operated by Rupeek Fintech Pvt. Ltd, the startup also has a subsidiary called Rupeek Capital Pvt. Ltd.
Rupeek Capital, which was incorporated in February 2017, will foray into the business of providing short- and long-term loans, according to its Memorandum of Association. The company has also applied for a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence.
While the consolidated financials of Rupeek Fintech showed no revenues for FY2015-16, it clocked operational revenues of Rs 3.26 lakh and gross revenues of Rs 29.40 lakh for FY2016-17. However, expenses rose four times to Rs 1.36 crore from Rs 34.08 lakh the previous year, mainly due to a more than three-fold rise in employee expenses at Rs 79.93 lakh, up from Rs 23.48 lakh the previous year. Net loss widened to Rs 1.07 crore from Rs 34.08 lakh.
