American Express Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners, Others Bet $4 Mn On Fintech Startup IndiaLends

Delhi-based credit and financial technology startup, IndiaLends has raised $4 Mn Series A funding from American Express Ventures, existing investors DSG Consumer Partners, Chinese investment firm Cyber Carrier VC, and AdvantEdge Partners.

The funding will be used to expand its credit underwriting and analytics capabilities, offer more consumer-focussed products and increase its market footprint across India.

IndiaLends was founded in March 2015 by Gaurav Chopra and Mayank Kachhwaha. It is a credit scoring and analytics platform focussed on disrupting the fragmented consumer lending market in the country.

Talking about the platform, co-founder Gaurav Chopra said, “We have witnessed strong traction in the past year with our loan volumes growing 100% quarter-on-quarter. We have partnered with over 30 banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and now offer bespoke lending products in segments that have been historically underserved. The superior quality and quantity of data is helping financial institutions underwrite more and more of our customers.”

IndiaLends operates an online marketplace that allows consumers to shop for loan products, as well as access credit scores and financial education. As per a company statement, it currently attracts over 140,000 visitors every month. It also provides credit scoring solutions to financial institutions to help them increase their lending footprint.

As per the founder, the startup has recently introduced products like credit builder loans for first-time borrowers, in partnership with select banks and NBFCs.

“We continue to support IndiaLends in its endeavour to provide financial institutions with technology and risk-assessment capabilities that will help them lend to consumers at scale. The company’s track record and strong financial and business fundamentals, along with its team’s ability to create products that have high product-market fit has increased our faith in their vision and execution capabilities.” said Deepak Shahdadpuri, Managing Director, DSG Consumer Partners. 

In December 2015, IndiaLends raised funding from DSG Consumer Partners and individual investors Siddharth Parekh and Gautham Radhakrishnan.

Earlier in February 2016, Bengaluru-based peer to peer lending marketplace startup, Loanzen, raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Tracxn Labs and angel investors, through Tracxn Syndicate. In October 2016 Gurugram-based mobile wallet company MobiKwik forayed into the short-term consumer loan segment. Users can now avail short-term credit loans from its platform. They can also register themselves for EMIs. Other startups in this segment include Deal4Loans, LendingKart, LenDenClub, Faircent, etc.