P2P Lending Platform Faircent Gets $1.5 Mn Boost From Brand Capital

Gurgaon-based peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform Faircent.com has raised $1.5 Mn funding from Brand Capital, the ad-for-equity investment arm of conglomerate, Bennett Coleman and Co. (BCCL).

Faircent started its operations in 2014. It was founded by Rajat Gandhi, Vinay Mathews, and Nitin Gupta as a peer-to-peer lending platform. It currently has over 6,000 lenders and 26,000 borrowers. It has disbursed a total loan of INR 6.5 Cr in the last two years.

Talking about the development, Rajat Gandhi, Founder and CEO of Faircent said, “Our association with Brand Capital would help us to accelerate our brand building efforts in order to reach more borrowers and lenders. More people need to be made aware of the alternate investment opportunity that we provide and this will help us take a step closer to provide easier and cheaper access to the credit market in India.”

Faircent recently featured in Interbrands’ global list of Breakthrough Brands 2016. Earlier in May 2016, it raised an undisclosed amount of funding in Series A round led by JM Financial Products Ltd., a subsidiary of JM Financial Ltd.  The startup diluted  9.84% of its stake in the deal. In October last year, it secured an undisclosed funding from the Chairman of Manipal Global Education, TV Mohandas Pai-led Aarin Capital Partners.

Faircent was also showcased as one of the top startups at Start Up India, and was also the part of the first batch of NASSCOM 10,000. It is part of the Microsoft BizSpark programme and it was one of the top 10 companies from India to be selected for Web Summit in 2013.

Earlier in June 2016, reports emerged that ecommerce firm Flipkart was in talks to sell a small stake to (BCCL) in a $75 Mn (INR 500 Cr) deal. The deal was reported to be funded partly by cash and partly by ads. BCCL has also invested $25 Mn (INR 150 Cr) in Mumbai-based cab service provider Meru Cabs.

Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposed that peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms will register as non-banking finance companies (NBFCs). The proposal came in order to regulate the lending platforms and bring them under the regulatory purview of the central bank. Currently, there are over 30 startups in the domain including Kiva.org, Rangde.org, Milaap.org, i-Lend, i2iFunding, Lendbox, Lendenclub, Loancircle, Loanzen, and Capzest.