Kunal Shah Backed Anq Acquires Kiwimoney To Foray Into Healthcare-Focussed Lending Space

Digital banking platform Anq Finance, which counts Kunal Shah (Cred), Ashish Sharma (Innoven Capital) and Madhusudan (M2P) among its investors, has acquired healthcare-focussed lending startup Kiwimoney for an undisclosed amount.

With this buyout, Anq aims to ramp up its fintech capabilities, while expanding into lending-related businesses, scaling up portfolio and widening footprint, the Bengaluru-based startup said in a statement on Wednesday (December 13).

Founded by Shrikant Bhalerao this year, Kiwimoney offers loans for healthcare needs spanning across proctology, laparoscopy, urology, vascular, ophthalmology, gynaecology, cosmetic, ENT, orthopaedic and dental. 

Kiwimoney, which claims to have a strategic partnership with Ahmedabad-based Western Fintrade, uses its proprietary loan origination and management technologies to help customers avail of its services, the statement added.

In the healthcare-focussed fintech startups’ ecosystem, Kiwimoney competes with the likes of QubeHealth and CoverSelf. 

Meanwhile, Anq, founded by Ashish Khandelwal, Abhinav AV and Swagat Sarma in 2022, offers prepaid cards that reward users with gold and digital assets for their day-to-day spending. 

The startup claims to have business-to-business (B2B) tie-ups with companies like Swiggy, Zomato, Flipkart, and Amazon, where users can make purchases using prepaid cards. 

“This strategic acquisition would help us scale Anq further in India and deliver further value to our customers,” Khandelwal said.

The COVID-19 pandemic gave a big boost to the healthcare-focussed fintech industry in the country. As a result, the space has been seeing some consolidation as bigger players look to acquire smaller ones to increase their scale or enter the segment. 

For instance, in March, lendingtech startup LoanTap acquired healthcare-focussed fintech startup Unofin for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was part of LoanTap’s plans to expand its presence in the healthcare finance space and also, provide affordable financing options for healthcare needs. 

According to Inc42’s State Of Indian Fintech Report, Q3 2023, the lendingtech segment of the fintech ecosystem has emerged as the fastest growing one. The space stood at more than $270 Mn in FY 2022 and is expected to grow to $1.3 Tn at 22% CAGR. 

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