Fintech Startup RedCarpet Raises $2.5 Mn Funding From Lightspeed Venture Partners, Others

Delhi-based RedCarpet, a student microlending startup has raised $2.5 Mn funding in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

The startup will use the newly raised funds to improve risk evaluation technology, introduce new student-lending features, and expansion of team. A mail sent to Lightspeed did not elicit a response, at the time of publication.

RedCarpet was founded in 2015 by Abhay Tamaria, Sandeep Srinivasa, and Kartik Venkataraman. It provides instant credit scoring and enables purchase financing using advanced AI. Users can avail instant credit for online purchases, they can buy any product from any site and pay back in easy installments.

It majorly acts as an EMI/installment payment platform for students for their online purchases in ecommerce, travel, etc.

According to the company website, RedCarpet arranges loans of up to INR 60,000 per borrower, with the average loan size at INR 5,000- INR 8,000.

It was a part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2015 batch. It was also one of the six startups that were a part of the second batch of Indian startups that joined the Launchpad Accelerator programme at Google Headquarters in Silicon Valley, California.

Last year in February, Bengaluru-based student micro-lending startup, Buddy, raised $500K from Blume Ventures, TracxnLabs and other angel investors in its Pre Series-A funding round.

In June 2016, KrazyBee, raised $2 Mn Seed funding from Chinese micro-loan/ecommerce player Fenqile (a micro-loan site) and Chinese mobile ad network YeahMobi. KrazyBee is a platform that helps college students to purchase anything online via a flexible, monthly payment plan. Other startups in this segment include Onemi, Finomena, Quicklo, among others.

(This development was reported by ET.)