Social Worth Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs online lending platform EarlySalary, has raised $4 million (Rs 26 crore) in its Series A funding from IDG Ventures India and mortgage lender Dewan Housing Finance Corp.
The startup, which offers salary advances and loans to young working professionals, will use the capital to build products and increase its lending book, it said in a statement.
It will also use the money to expand team, specifically in skill sets of machine learning, as well as to grow customer base and provide 200,000 loans in this financial year.
The startup said that about 80% of its customers are first-time borrowers. Its self-developed underwriting system reviews social media and credit bureau data of customers to help approve the loan for them.
“We believe fintech firms are changing the way India will bank and EarlySalary’s capability of using social media based underwriting decisioning will help many young working professionals get access to credit which is otherwise not possible,†said Karthik Prabhakar, director, IDG Ventures India Advisors.
EarlySalary was founded by Akshay Mehrotra and Ashish Goyal in mid-2015. Mehrotra, who is the CEO, was earlier chief marketing officer at Future Retail Ltd and PolicyBazaar.com. Goyal, who is the CFO, is a chartered accountant and had previously served as the chief investment officer at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.
The online lending platform had raised $1.5 million (Rs 9.9 crore) in seed capital from Transcorp Group’s Ashok Agarwal in November 2015.
The company claims to have distributed 15,000 loans between Rs 8,000 to Rs 1,00,000. EarlySalary partners with small, medium and large companies to give salary advances to employees.
EarlySalary is one of more than two dozen online lending startups that have emerged over the past couple of years in India. These startups target different segments such as salaried professionals and small businesses while some offer peer-to-peer lending platforms.
Earlier this week, peer-to-peer lending startup i-lend secured an undisclosed amount in a pre-series A round from seed and incubator firm 50K Ventures.
IDG Ventures India is part of IDG Ventures, a global network with about $4 billion under management. It invests in technology and technology-enabled companies in India across consumer Internet, software, health-tech and fin-tech sectors. In March, it marked the final close of its third fund at the targeted level of $200 million (around Rs 1,332 crore).
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