Chqbook Bags $5 Mn Series A To Broaden Fintech Play Beyond Lending

Gurugram-based fintech startup Chqbook, on Tuesday (March 3), announced that it has raised $5 Mn in its Series A funding round led by Aavishkaar Group’s equity investment arm Aavishkaar Capital. Prior to this, the startup has also raised seed funding from angel investors including Harsha Bhogle, Apurva Chamaria, Sachin Arora, Bharat Gupta, and Amit Manocha.

With the recently raised capital, Chqbook is planning to add more fintech products to its portfolio. The startup is also looking to expand its distribution channel to more Indian cities. Chqbook said it would invest in enhancing its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI)-based lending and insurance platform.

Founded in 2017 by Vipul Sharma, Rajat Kumar, Sachin Arora and Mohit Goel, Chqbook is an online financial marketplace which offers services such as lending, credit cards and insurance. The startup helps small business owners to secure loans easily through its partners.

Customers can explore personalised loans and credit card products, and check their eligibility on the go, while Chqbook uses machine learning algorithms to match customers to the right lending provider.

For easy approval of loans, each application is tracked over 100 parameters and Chqbook monitors the entire approval process, making the experience seamless for both customers and banking partners. Beyond the loans, Chqbook has partnered with other online platforms such as Amazon, Bookmyshow, Gaana, travel ticketing platform Ixigo, epharmacy Netmeds and lifestyle brand The Man Company, for rewards, which keeps the customer spending within the digital ecosystem and promotes higher adoption of startup products. So when Chqbook customers are approved for loans and other products, they also net rewards and discount coupons from partner brands. This also makes acquisition easier for Chqbook itself.

In an earlier interaction with Inc42, cofounder Sharma had said that over 70% of its customers have good credit scores of around 700, and that’s the reason why brands partner with Chqbook because they want to access this customer base.

The company claims that it has already achieved unit economics-positive. Moreover, it also claims to have witnessed 8X growth year-on-year revenue in 2020 as compared to FY2019.

According to DataLabs by Inc42’s recently released report “Fintech Outlook 2019”, there are currently 2707 fintech startups in India and $5.29 Bn have been invested between 2014-2018 in this sector. These numbers suggest that fintech startups are getting more success in attracting investors.

Last month, while Mumbai-based fintech startup SuperMoney raised $1 Mn in pre-Series A funding from early-stage investor Unitus Ventures, serial entrepreneur Shailaz Nag’s new venture Dot raised $8 Mn in seed funding.

Moreover, the fintech sector has also attracted the eyes of smartphone markers which are now making an entry in this segment. Recently, Chinese smartphone maker OPPO has also forayed in financial services and is offering savings, lendings, and insurance on its OPPO Kash platform. Prior to this, Xiaomi, Realme, and Samsung have also marked their entry in the fintech segment.