BharatPe gets Rs 200 cr debt fund from IIFL and Northern Arc

BharatPe, which provides financial services to merchants, on Thursday said it has raised Rs 100 crore each in debt from IIFL Wealth and Asset Management, and Northern Arc Capital. This is the seventh round of debt funding for the company. BharatPe has raised a total of over Rs 500 crore (about USD 70 million) in debt at competitive rates, in the year 2021, a statement said.

It plans to raise USD 250 million in debt by the end of FY22, it added. Earlier this year, BharatPe had raised over Rs 300 crore from venture debt funds (Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital and Trifecta Capital), banks (ICICI Bank and Axis Bank) and NBFC (Northern Arc Capital). “BharatPe’s lending vertical has grown exponentially over the last 1.5 years. BharatPe has already disbursed over USD 300 million in unsecured loans to over 2 lakh merchant partners and has an outstanding loan book of over USD 100 million,” it said.

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Suhail Sameer, Chief Executive Officer of BharatPe, said the company has witnessed a surge in demand for merchant loans, with multi-fold growth over the last one year. “With the festive season coming up soon, we are committed to scaling our lending vertical aggressively and have set a target of 10x growth in lending by FY23. It is a matter of pride for us that top wholesale lenders in the country have joined us in our journey to serve the credit needs of the underserved,” he added. The company has set a target to raise USD 700 million in debt over the next two years to facilitate this credit growth and hence, will continue to explore partnership with domestic and international investors, ranging from banks, NBFCs, credit funds, large pension funds and impact investors/development financial institutions, he said.

Nishit Sharma, Chief Revenue Officer of BharatPe, said the company is committed to empower its merchant partners and intends to build a loan book of USD 1 billion by March 2023. “As we expand our offering across new cities, we will also be adding secured lending products such as gold loans and two-wheeler loans to our existing set of offerings for merchants, he added. Recently, BharatPe had entered the unicorn club (companies with valuation of over USD 1 billion) with series E funding of USD 370 million at a valuation of USD 2.85 billion.