Gurgaon-based Faircent has raised its pre-Series A round of $250K from Singapore based M&S Partners Pte. Ltd. at an enterprise valuation of $8 Mn. The company is a peer to peer lending platform where potential lenders and borrowers interact amongst themselves to strike deals on lending and borrowing. The startup will used the said funding for strengthening technology, talent and brand.
This round was raised while Faircent was part of InnoTrek delegation, an initiative of NASSCOM’s 10,000 Startups Program that enabled 39 shortlisted companies from India to interact with top companies and VCs in Silicon Valley.
How It Works?
On the website, lenders and borrowers register, after which, borrowers post requirements for loans citing reason, loan period and a target interest rate which they are willing to pay. Lenders too can individually make offers to borrowers. Offers are defined in terms of amount to be lent and the applicable interest rate. Once an agreement is reached between the borrower and the lender, a formal contract is signed by them. Faircent does not intervene in any bilateral negotiation, nor do they take any payment as part of EMIs involved. Only an upfront fee is charged once a deal is finalized for its services and facilitating the process.
The company has been developing its technology enabled credit appraisal and borrower rating system. Rajat Gandhi, Founder & CEO of Faircent said,” Our biggest success is in unlocking the retail lending side, which till now has been untapped and unheard of in the country.”
Vinay Mathews, COO of the company added that over $125K of loan offers are being made by lenders every month on the platform through an open bidding model. In just nine months of operations the company has over $343K in lender commitment and loan demand of over $218K.
M&S is led by Japanese investor Hiro Mashita who strongly believes that Faircent is one of the best FinTech Partners in providing most effective and trustworthy solutions to lenders and borrowers in India.
Ravi Gururaj, NASSCOM Product Council said that he is truly delighted that the NASSCOM InnoTrek Delegation helped connect Faircent’s Vinay Mathews to world class seed investor who offered to back the Indian startup in very short order and at a decent evaluation. He further added that he is glad that their endeavour resulted in a win-win outcome within days of delegation concluding.
Editor’s Take
Banks usually demand higher rate of interest from borrowers with too many strings attached. Online peer-to-peer sites help these borrowers have a hassle-free experience without any intermediaries and costs. Platforms like these allows small borrowers to raise funds for their business need at lower rates charged by banks. For lenders, it can be beneficial if they earn interest more than they earn from depositing in banks.
