Perfios Bags $50 Mn Funding To Strengthen International Operations

SUMMARY

Perfios has raised $50 Mn in Series B funding round led by Warburg Pincus and existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners

Perfios plans to utilise the funds to strengthen its position in international markets

Between 2015 and Q1 2019, total investment in Indian fintech startups was around $7.62 Bn

Bengaluru-based fintech firm Perfios has reportedly raised $50 Mn in Series B funding round led by Warburg Pincus and its existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners. The recent funding of Perfios has also given an exit to a few of its angel investors from the fintech company.

According to an ET report, the company plans to utilise the funds in its three core areas — continued technology innovation, developing new offerings, and international expansion. The company also plans to strengthen its presence in international markets such as the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia and in exploring potential acquisitions.

Founded in 2009 by V R Govindarajan and Debasish Chakraborty Perfios is a credit decisioning and analytics company which operates in the B2B and B2C segment. The company claims to have a partnership with over 200 banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and fintech startups.

The platform enables financial institutions in realtime decisioning, analysis and credit underwriting. Additionally, the company provides services such as banks statement analysis, e-verification, financial analysis, fraud check, among other financial services. Using these services, the company helps lenders to evaluate a loan applicant in a better manner.

Perfios also provides financial data aggregation APIs which helps large institutions or fintech companies to enable their personal finance or money manager applications.

Speaking on the investment, Govindarajan told ET that the company is also planning to work closely with regulators in building a secure ecosystem through upcoming government initiatives such as NBFC account aggregator and the personal data privacy bill.

Earlier, the startup has raised $6.1 Mn funding during its series A funding from Bessemer Venture Partners in April 2017.

Booming Fintech Market In India

DataLabs by Inc42 has noted that despite consumer preferences shifting towards digital lending, still there are certain fundamental hurdles in the fintech sector. These issues include a lack of financial literacy, the digital divide between urban and rural audiences, and the lack of a robust banking infrastructure throughout the country.

However, so far digital lending startups have made a good start in India, and have earned plenty of investor attention in the past four years.

According to the Global Fintech Report Q1 2019, over 1 Mn borrowers and 2 Mn lenders have transacted with lending platforms, with the overall exposure remaining at INR 350 Cr ( $48.8 Mn).

The report further stated that between 2015 and Q1 2019, the total investment in Indian fintech startups was around $7.62 Bn, out of which 25.49% ($1.94 Bn) was for lending tech startups, according to DataLabs by Inc42.

India’s digital lending market has the potential to become a $1 Tn (INR 71 Lakh Cr) opportunity in the next five years, according to a 2018 BCG report. Of this, personal lending is estimated to grow to a $50 Bn market, growing at a rate of 30% every year.