Lendingkart raises Rs. 205 crore in series B round by Betelsmann India

Aiming to improve its data science capabilities, Lendingkart Technologies Ltd, has raised $32 million (Rs.205 crore) in the second round of funding led by Betelsmann India Investment, said the company on Tuesday.

The debt plus equity round of funding saw participation from Darrin Capital Management and existing investors Mayfield India, Saama Capital and India Quotient. According to the company, it has raised $20 million in equity and $12 million in debt.

Lendingkart provides working capital finance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It had raised $10 million in July 2015, from venture capital funds Saama Capital, Mayfield and two individual investors, Ashvin Chadha and Shailesh Mehta.

Lendingkart was founded in 2014 by Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan. It will use the funds to improve its data science capabilities, enhance its technology solutions, and build a better infrastructure for mobile capabilities.

In a statement Lunia said, “With Bertelsmann onboard, we look forward to leveraging its deep understanding of global financial products as well as Internet businesses. Bertelsmann has strategic insights of the Fin-tech space with end-to-end process knowledge and expertise in digital origination. Bertelsmann brings a fresh perspective on digital distribution and data-driven risk assessment which will help us in becoming the leading lending platform for SMEs in India.”

Lendingkart helps borrowers by providing instant and flexible financing solutions using the web and smartphones. The company claims that the funds are transferred within 24 hours of documentation requirements being met.

It has disbursed loans to customers in 135 cities across 22 states since 2014, witnessing a 20% month-over-month growth in loan origination, it stated in the statement.

The company competes with Bangalore-based Capital Float (Zen Lefin Pvt. Ltd), Instakash Technlogies Pvt. Ltd, Neogrowth Credit Pvt. Ltd, IndiaLends (GC Web Ventures Private Limited), among others.

In May, Capital Float raised $25 million (Rs.170 crore) in an investment round led by US-based Creation Investments. In August, Mumbai-based NeoGrowth raised Rs.15 crore from Frontier Investments Group and IndiaLends has raised about Rs.6.5 crore from DSG Consumer Partners, Siddharth Parekh and other angel investors.