Online Lending Startup Qbera Raises $3 Mn From E-City Venture

Bengaluru-based online lending platform Qbera has raised a $3 Mn funding round led by Mumbai-based investor E-City Ventures which is a part of the Indian conglomerate Essel Group.

Qbera was founded in 2015 by Aditya Kumar and Anubhav Jain. The platform offers  digital personal loans to people. It currently operates in  Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Jaipur.

The startup plans to utilise the recently raised funds towards ramping up its technology and analytics capabilities. It also plans to expand its team across functions, scale its business and expand its geographical reach to more parts of the country.

It  further looks to expand its presence across Tier 2 cities such as Lucknow, Surat, Bhopal, and Patna over the next few months.

“This funding by E-City Ventures emphasises the impact of our diverse lending solutions targeted to help salaried consumers across various segments and geographies access affordable credit in a convenient and stress-free manner,” Kumar said in a statement.

According to the official website, the loan amounts on Qbera range from $692.6 (INR 50K) to  $34.8K (INR 25 Lakh), with applicable tenures between 12 and 60 months.

The platform facilitates loans from banks and financial institutions such as Kotak Mahindra Bank, RBL Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Fullerton, by acting as an intermediary between them and registered borrowers on Qbera.

According to the startup, as of August 2018, it has processed more than twoLakh applications and disbursed loans worth more than $6.9 Mn (INR 50 Cr). It aims to extend loans worth $55.3 Mn (INR 400 Cr) by the end of FY 2019-20.

Some of the major players in the digital lending sectors are  Zestmoney,Lendingkart, FlexiLoans, KredX, Capital Float, and MoneyTap, among others.

Recently in August 2018, Bengaluru-based digital lending startup ZestMoney raised $13.4 Mn in extended Series A round of funding led by Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi.

Also another player in the space LoanTap , which is based in Bengaluru had raised $6.25 Mn (INR 43 Cr) in an equity funding round led by Beijing-based venture capital firm Shunwei Capital.

According to Inc42 DataLabs Indian Startup Funding report 2017, the Indian fintech industry has received $3.01 Bn across 111 deals in 2017. Further, the Indian Tech Startup Funding Q1 2018 report,states that fintech as a sector witnessed $2 Bn in investment in H1 2017.