CURRENT NEWS

Funds to be used to expand the lending base, build technology and strengthen analytics capabilities

 

National, 9 August 2019 – Lendingkart Technologies Private Limited, India's leading financial technology company has raised a fresh equity round of INR 212 crores (US $30 Million) led by existing investors including Fullerton Financial Holdings Pte Ltd ("FFH"), Bertelsmann India Investments and India Quotient signalling a strong support and trust in Lendingkart's vision of financial inclusion and digital accessibility for everyone.

With this funding round, the total equity raised by Lendingkart stands at $143 Mn. The funding will be used to expand lending bases, deepen Lendingkart Group's reach to small and underserved micro enterprises and further strengthen its technological and analytics capabilities. Credit Suisse acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Lendingkart Technologies.

Mr. Harshvardhan Lunia, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Lendingkart Technologies,said, "We are pleased with the momentum in our business and this equity will help us meet the growth opportunities we are seeing. Micro and small businesses represent a vibrant yet underserved segment of the Indian economy. The support of all of our customers, investors and employees is empowering us to build the leading financial services platform for this segment."

Commenting on the investment in Lendingkart Technologies, Mr. Yeo Hong Ping, President, Fullerton Financial Holdings said, "Over the past year, Lendingkart's business has seen robust growth and continues to exhibit great potential. We are delighted to continue partnering with Lendingkart who has been at the forefront of making working capital digitally accessible for MSMEs, as India continues its journey towards becoming a digitally enabled country."

Mr. Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director, Bertelsmann India Investments said, "Digital lending is revolutionizing access to capital for MSMEs. With focused efforts of the Government and technological advances such as big data, digital lending has set the stage for disruption with greater formalisation, faster capital disbursements and vastly improved customer experience. We are proud to be a part of this incredible journey with Lendingkart as it continues to demonstrate market leadership in this space."

Since its inception, Lendingkart Finance (the NBFC arm of Lendingkart Group) has evaluated nearly half a million applications, disbursing 60,000+ loans to more than 55,000 MSMEs in 1300+ cities across all 29 states and union territories of the nation, making it the NBFC with the largest geographical footprint in the country.

Aligned with the Government of India's agenda of building financial inclusion, Lendingkart Finance works towards ensuring availability of credit for small and micro enterprises across the country that either do not have access to credit or are capital deficient currently. Lendingkart leverages robust in-house technology tools based on big data analytics and machine learning algorithms to evaluate creditworthiness. By analysing thousands of data points to assess factors like financial health, comparative market performance, social reliability & compliance and a distinctive evaluation process, Lendingkart aims to disburse loans with minimal paperwork within 72 hours.

Lendingkart Technologies has been identified as a "Soonicorn” by Inc42 in the digital lending space for possessing the potential to become a Unicorn company by 2020 and has also won the title of "Best Fintech Company" in the Lending category organized by KPMG in India along with Business Today.

 

About Lendingkart Group
Lendingkart Technologies is a leading Fintech company in India. Lendingkart Finance Limited is a non-deposit taking NBFC arm of Lendingkart Group, providing working capital loans and business loans to MSMEs across India. The Company is pioneering financial services for helping MSMEs grow their business through digital lending and bringing them and their family into the financial mainstream. Thus, contributing towards building entrepreneurship and a strong Indian economy. We are currently based in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Kolkata but have a service reach across India.

To know more, please visit www.lendingkart.com

 

About Fullerton Financial Holdings

Fullerton Financial Holdings Pte. Ltd. (FFH) is an independently-operated strategic and operating investor in financial and related services in emerging markets. FFH creates shareholder value by being committed to building differentiated business models focused on the Mass Market and SME segments, and an enabler of digital innovation for our portfolio companies. FFH is a wholly-owned independent portfolio company of Singapore-headquartered investment company, Temasek. As at 31 December 2018, FFH Group’s total assets stood at S$9.4 billion, and its portfolio includes investments in 11 financial institutions located in 8 countries.

 

About Bertelsmann India Investments

Bertelsmann India Investments (BII) is a venture capital fund of Bertelsmann, a media, services and education company that operates in about 50 countries around the world. BII focuses on series B and C stage investments in pioneering companies in the digital, education, media and services sectors. Since its official launch in 2012, BII has invested in 10+ companies including Saavn (music streaming service), Pepperfry (online furniture marketplace), iNurture (higher education services), Lendingkart (digital lending platform for SMEs) and most recently Eruditus and Emeritus (IVY league programs for working professionals). BII is part of Bertelsmann Investments, which houses the group’s other corporate funds such as BAI (China), BDMI (US and Europe) and BBI (Brazil) and cumulatively has more than 170+ investments. Further information is available at www.biifund.com

 

Agency Contact

Neerja Shah
[email protected]
+91 8884787345 | +91 9726033647