BharatPe raises Rs 100 cr in debt from MAS Financial

Fintech firm BharatPe on Monday said it has raised Rs 100 crore (about USD 14 million) in debt from MAS Financial Services. This is the eighth round of debt fund raise for the company in 2021. BharatPe has raised over Rs 600 crore (about USD 84 million) in debt this calendar year, a statement said.

“BharatPe has been bullish about its lending vertical, having clocked 10x growth in the last financial year. In total, it has facilitated disbursals in excess of USD 400 million in unsecured loans to over 3 lakh merchants, since the launch of the product,” it added. BharatPe has raised Rs 500 crore in debt financing this year from venture debt funds (Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital and Trifecta Capital), banks (ICICI Bank and Axis Bank), NBFCs (Northern Arc Capital) and wealth management companies (IIFL Wealth and Asset Management) in the earlier rounds.

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The company is on track to meet its debt raise targets for FY22, the statement said. Bharatpe had, in August, said it plans to raise USD 250 million in debt by the end of FY22. As per industry reports, there is close to USD 400 billion addressable SME lending opportunity in India. BharatPe is committed to address this credit gap for small merchants and kirana store owners in India with its compelling lending products for offline merchants,” BharatPe Chief Executive Officer Suhail Sameer said.

He added that the recent debt raises will give the company the raw material to build its merchant lending vertical more aggressively. “BharatPe is one of the largest B2B Fintech lenders in India today, facilitating loan disbursals of over Rs 300 crore to offline merchants every month. As Indian businesses rebound and the impact of the pandemic fades away, we expect the lending vertical to grow multi-fold over the coming months,” he said.

BharatPe Chief Revenue Officer Nishit Sharma said ‘BharatPe’s lending vertical has been scaling fast over the last two years. “In the coming months, we will not only focus on expanding our geographical coverage in India, but also launch a range of innovative lending products for merchants. We are on track to build a loan book of USD 1 billion by March 2023 for our lending partners,” he added.

Founded in 2018 by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani, BharatPe serves over 70 lakh merchants across over 140 cities. It processes over 11 crore UPI transactions per month (annualised transaction processed value of more than USD 11 billion). The company has already facilitated disbursement of loans totaling to over Rs 2,800 crore to its merchants since launch.

BharatPe has raised over USD 650 million in equity and debt, till date. Its investors include Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital and others.