Billionloans Financial Services Pvt. Ltd, a Bengaluru-based fintech startup that operates a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, has raised $1 million (around Rs 7 crore) in seed funding from Reliance Corporate Advisory Services Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital Ltd.
The deal was structured by Reliance Capital's wealth management unit, the startup said in a statement.
Former Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan, who is chairman of Exfinity Venture Partners, is one of the early investors in the company. He is currently chairman of Billionloans.
Billionloans, which is a technology-enabled financial services firm, focuses on providing financing options to individuals and small businesses.
“Technology and innovation in financial services are going to play a big part in bridging the gap between aspirations of Indians wanting access to credit on one hand and the ability of companies to build scalable lending models on the other. We look forward to support Billionloans in its vision," said Anmol Ambani, executive director, Reliance Capital.
Billionloans was founded in 2016 by Rangan Varadan, a serial entrepreneur who has also co-founded MicroGraam, an online micro-lending platform.
Billionloans is a P2P platform that facilitates loan transactions between borrowers and lenders.
Functioning as a virtual marketplace, it connects borrowers to lenders directly and uses technology and data-based credit analysis to assess eligibility and process applications.
The startup aims to focus on affordable housing, education and personal loans as well as loans to SMEs. To facilitate loans, it has partnered with financial institutions and banks.
In three years, the firm plans to facilitate loans worth around Rs 2,000 crore across multiple products and lenders, it said.
“India has a large pool of unbanked population that does not have access to the formal banking system.
Our goal is to disrupt how borrowers are sourced and appraised using technology," said Balakrishnan.
Of late, the fintech space has gained momentum with a number of players entering the payments, lending, insurance and personal finance segments. The sector has also been seeing a lot of investment activity.
A recent VCCircle analysis showed that 25 fin-tech startups raised funding in 2017 alone. These include LoanTap, Fincash, MoneyTap, LoanMeet and Ftcash.
