Mumbai-based fintech startup Rubique is in an advanced stage of talks with Chinese and UAE venture capital firms besides existing investors to raise $20 million (around Rs 128 crore) in its Series B round of funding, managing director and CEO Manav Jeet told VCCircle.
“We are a few weeks away from completing our Series B funding. We are in an advanced stage of discussions with two venture capital firms from China and the UAE for the next round which will accelerate our expansion plans,†he said.
Once the latest funding round is completed, the company will embark on an expansion strategy to grow its presence to 100 cities by December this year, Jeet said. The firm—which recently received regulatory approvals to offer insurance products and services—will launch insurance policies in a month and venture into mutual funds by November, he said.
Bloomberg first reported about Rubique’s Series B funding round.
Run by Bestdealfinance.com Pvt. Ltd, Rubique is a credit facilitator for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individuals. In the SME segment, it focuses on loans for commercial vehicles and construction equipment. The retail segment includes home loans, personal loans and two-wheeler loans, among others.
Jeet said the firm’s core focus on loan disbursement completion rather than lead generation has been paying off quite handsomely. According to him, Rubique has facilitated disbursement of loans worth Rs 1,900 crore and enabled more than 47,000 credit card set-ups with a monthly run rate of Rs 150 crore and close to 5,000 credit card processing. The company now has more than one lakh customers and acquires over 10,000 customers (who file an application, not just visitors) monthly, he said.
The fresh funding round comes in a little more than two months since it raised $3 million in a bridge round from existing investor Kalaari Capital and Udayan Goyal, managing partner at Apis Partners.
In April 2016, Rubique had secured $3 million in Series A funding led by Kalaari Capital. YourNest Angel Fund, Globevestor and Dexter Angel Circle had also put in money.
Formerly known as Bestdealfinance.com, the startup was founded by Jeet and Sandeep Nambiar in February 2015.
Previously, Jeet was senior president and head of retail banking at YES Bank. Before that, he worked with Reliance Consumer Finance, HDFC Bank and SBI Mutual Fund, among other firms. Nambiar previously held different technical positions at Nomura Securities and Wipro.
Rubique claims to have on-boarded 51 financial institutions as partners. Its lending network includes firms such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, as well as non-banking financial companies such as Aditya Birla Housing Finance, PNB Housing Finance and Indiabulls Financial Services.
Rubique is currently operates in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Jaipur.
