Digital Gold Loans Provider Rupeek Gets $6.83 Mn In Funding From Accel, Sequoia

Bengaluru-based online gold loan providing startup Rupeek has reportedly raised $6.83 Mn (INR 44 Cr) in a fresh round of funding led by Accel Partners in participation with Sequoia Capital.

A report in VCCircle quoted Rupeek’s filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) which revealed that Accel Partners invested $5 Mn (INR 32.55 Cr) and the rest was invested by Sequoia Capital.

In January 2017, Sequoia Capital also invested $2 Mn in the company, according to the filings.

Furthermore, it revealed that in 2016, the company raised $346K (INR 2.23 Cr) from investors like Anand Chandrasekaran (former CPO, Snapdeal), Anupam Mittal (founder, People Group), Kunal Shah (founder, Freecharge) and Ravi Garikipati (CTO, Flipkart).

With this round of funding, Rupeek’s total funding has reached $9.25 Mn (INR 59.6 Cr), the filings revealed.

The report estimated that the company will reach a valuation of $31 Mn (INR 200 Cr) post this round of funding.

Earlier in September 2017, the reports also surfaced that Rupeek is planning to raise nearly $12 Mn in a funding round led by Accel India and Lok Capital.

Rupeek was founded in 2015 by Maniyar and Ashwin Soni. The startup aims to provide gold loans to individuals after receiving their identity and address proof along with a cancelled cheque. It claims to disburse loans in an hour.

Rupeek accepts gold jewellery and offers its loans for a year.

The gold loan space has mostly been dominated by Non-banking financial institutions (NBFC’s) like Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance.

However, recently a few platforms like Gold Uno, Achiever Quick Gold Loan among others have sprouted up to offer gold loans to people.

Recently, players like Paytm and Flipkart also ventured into the gold loan segment.

In April 2017, Japanese conglomerate Softbank-backed Paytm collaborated with MMTC-PAMP to launch Digital Gold. This enabled users to buy gold online and store it in MMTC-PAMP’s vault free of charge.

Later in December 2017, Flipkart’s digital payments subsidiary PhonePe signed a partnership with SafeGold to launch a digital gold product. With this, a user can buy and sell certified 24-karat gold via the PhonePe app.

The World Gold Council has estimated that Indians currently possess over 24,000 tons of gold worth up to $900 Bn. With the growing scenario of digital access, this market is expected to grow much more.

It is to be seen what innovation gold loan provider Rupeek can bring on stage with its fresh round of funding to challenge deep-pocketed players like Flipkart and Paytm.