Sistema Asia Fund Invests $2.95 Mn In Fintech Startup Lendingkart

Ahmedabad-based lendingtech startup Lendingkart has raised $2.95 Mn (INR 21 Cr) in a fresh equity round from Sistema Asia Fund. The investment comes days after the company raised $30 Mn (INR 212 Cr) in an equity funding round led by existing investors including Fullerton Financial Holdings, Bertelsmann India Investments and India Quotient.

The funds will be used to expand the lending base, build technology and strengthen analytics capabilities. With this round, the total equity raised by Lendingkart stands at $146 Mn. The company has raised debt in June as well, with last round being $11.4 Mn (INR 80 Cr) from Alteria Capital.

Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan founded Lendingkart in 2014. It is an instant working capital finance platform that provides SMEs with easy access to credit and working capital. The NBFC arm, Lendingkart Finance has evaluated nearly half a million applications, disbursing over 60K loans to more than 55K MSMEs in over 1300 cities across all 29 states and union territories.

Dhruv Kapoor, partner, Sistema Asia Capital said, “Harsh and team continue to impress us with their energy, passion and tenacity in scaling Lendingkart to greater heights. Even during these challenging times, Lendingkart continues to grow and perform impressively across all metrics and we are privileged to partner with the company in their journey.”

Lendingkart Technologies reported a three-fold increase in its consolidated revenue to $13.1 Mn (INR91.8 Cr) for FY18 but its total expenses almost doubled from $108 Mn (INR 75.5 Cr) in FY17 to $20.7 Mn (INR 144.15 Cr) in FY18 which led to widening losses for the company.

As per DataLabs by Inc42, between 2015 and Q1 2019, the total investment in Indian fintech startups was $7.62 Bn with a total deal count of 478. Out of the total funding, 25.49% ($1.94 Bn) was in lending tech startups. Some of the leading lending startups include Indifi, Kissht, StashFin, Ftcash etc.

As per a survey conducted by BCG and Google in 2018, 23% of consumers in India have availed of retail loans digitally. Another interesting fact presented in this report says SME loans and personal loans have the highest digital influence as well as purchase rate. These insights address an interesting trait of the consumer behaviour of the digital lending landscape in India i.e the high readiness of people with a digital footprint towards the adoption of digital lending in the country.

DataLabs by Inc42 has noted that despite consumer preferences shifting towards digital lending, there are some fundamental hurdles in this sector such as lack of financial literacy, the digital divide between urban and rural audiences, and the lack of a robust banking infrastructure throughout the country. But so far digital lending startups have made a good start in India, and have earned plenty of investor attention in the past four years.

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