Online financing platform Lendingkart raises $32 mn in Series B funding

Online financing platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) Lendingkart has raised $32 million (around Rs 205 crore) in its Series B funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII).

The round also saw participation from Darrin Capital Management and existing investors Mayfield India, Saama Capital and India Quotient, according to a press statement.

The lending platform, run by Lendingkart Technologies Pvt. Ltd, will use the new capital for strengthening its data science capabilities, enhancing its technology platform and improving its mobile capabilities.

"With Arvato Financial Solutions as a part of the Group, Bertelsmann has strategic insights of the fin-tech space with end-to-end process knowledge and expertise in digital origination. Bertelsmann brings a fresh perspective on digital distribution and data driven risk assessment which will help us in becoming the leading lending platform for SMEs in India," said Harshvardhan Lunia, co-founder and CEO of the company.

Founded in 2014 by Lunia and Mukul Sachan, Lendingkart provides working capital loans to entrepreneurs. The company has offices in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Mumbai, but offers its services across India.

In July 2015, Lendingkart had raised $10 million in its Series A round co-led by Saama Capital and Mayfield. In January 2015, it had got Rs 3.8 crore in seed funding from Ashish Goenka (member of Mumbai Angels), Rhythm Ventures Ltd, Saama Capital, India Quotient, Ashvin Chadha (member of Indian Angel Networks), Sandip Chintawar and Shailesh Mehta.

In April this year, Lendingkart appointed former HT Media executive Anand Mishra as vice president of product analytics.

Recently, Saama Capital had raised $30.3 million (Rs 205 crore) under its third fund. It has set a target of raising around $50 million in the fund.

Bertselmann India has also backed fashion discovery app Roposo.

India Quotient is an investor in companies such as rBus, Care24, and HolaChef.

In the fin-tech segment, last month, online investment platform Goalwise had raised $1 million from affluent individuals while online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform i2ifunding had secured Rs 2 crore from a group of angel investors.

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