EarlySalary Founders Up Stake In The Startup By 3X To 12%

At a time when we are witnessing startup founders diluting their stakes to raise funding, founders of consumer-lending fintech startup EarlySalary are increasing their stakes by 3X. 

The Pune-based startup founders – Ashish Goyal and Akshay Mehrotra are increasing their stakes from existing 4% to 12% on a fully diluted basis. 

The startup in an extra-ordinary general meeting held last week had passed a resolution to allot 18,000 Series D1 non-cumulative, compulsory and fully convertible preference shares to the founders in exchange of $13 Mn (INR 104.2 Cr). 

As per the regulatory filing, the founders who have committed to invest INR 104.2 Cr will have to pay an upfront amount of INR 18,000. It is to be noted that the founders will be paying 50% of the funding in the fourth year and the remaining amount in the fifth year. A mail sent to EarlySalary with queries elicit no response while publishing this story. 

Earlier, we have seen Sachin Bansal of Navi investing in his company to continue holding majority stakes. Another instance would be, Byju Raveendran, the cofounder of eponymous Indian edtech giant BYJU’S is also investing $400 Mn to increase his stake in the $22 Bn valued company. 

The development comes almost two years after EarlySalary raised $10 Mn in what seems to be the startup’s Series C round of funding from its existing investors – Eight Road Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, GenNext Ventures, among others. In 2018, the startup had raised $15.7 Mn in its Series B round from Eight Roads Ventures, IDG Venture India. 

As per the regulatory filing, the startup further intends to raise debt worth INR 250 Cr ($31 Mn) in FY2022 – FY2023.  

Founded in 2015 by Goyal and Mehrotra, EarlySalary claims to be a lending app focusing on young working professionals. As per its website, the startup claims to offer instant loans up to the range of INR 5 Lakh. It claims to have over 10 Mn downloads and states that the platform has already disbursed INR 5,000 Cr of loans to 2.4 Mn customers. 

The Pune-based startup also claims to have tie-ups with 700 companies. The eligibility criteria to get a loan through EarlySalary comprise of: a) age criteria of 21 to 55, b) minimum salary of INR 18,000 (metro cities) and INR 15,000 (non-metro cities) and c) has to be an Indian resident. 

The startup claims to be operational in 27 cities in the country including Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Gurugram, Mumbai, among other cities. 

EarlySalary directly or indirectly competes against the likes of consumer lending startups such as Simpl, Slice, ZestMoney, among others.