Lending startup Indifi raises $10 mn in Series B

Gurgaon-based fintech startup Indifi Technologies Pvt Ltd, floated by angel investor and venture capital firm Canaan Partners' former India chief Alok Mittal, has raised $10 million (Rs 66.5 crore) in a Series B funding round led by Omidyar Network -- an investment firm founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

The round also saw participation from existing investors Accel Partners and Elevar Equity, the startup said in a statement.

Smita Aggarwal, director, investments, Omidyar Network, said, "Indifi's unique platform combines smart data analytics and strategic partnerships with supply and distribution chain aggregators in a one-stop solution, revolutionising the way lenders reach and underwrite credit to MSMEs, while helping them grow and thrive."

In September last year, the startup raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Accel and Elevar. Some of the other investors in the firm include Genpact founder Pramod Bhasin, Google's Rajan Anandan, Gaurav Dalmia, Abhishek Goyal, Gagan Hasteer and Arun Tadanki.

Indifi, while maintaining its focus on MSME businesses, intends to direct the investments towards furthering its products and technology, the company added.

"Through our current roadmap, we have validated our vertical approach to financing and are now present across segments. The capital raised in this series will be targeted toward improving our offerings in these verticals. That means not only expanding our product lineup but also creating a more seamless customer experience, and enhancing our data and credit models," said Mittal, who is the co-founder and CEO of Indifi.

Founded last year by Mittal, Siddharth Mahanot, and Sundeep Sahi, Indifi is an online platform connecting small businesses with formal lending institutions. It has tied up with a number of financial institutions such as Edelweiss, India Infoline and Capital First, which provide credit financing to micro, small and medium enterprises. Indifi said it takes a segment-specific approach and lending products in any given segment are tightly integrated with the business cash flows and transactional linkages in that segment.

Prior to launching Indifi, Mittal founded Canaan Partners in India, co-founded JobsAhead.com (acquired by Monster.com) and is also a founder member of Indian Angel Network.

Mahanot has previously worked with Indiabulls Housing Finance, Edelweiss Financial, Citibank and ICICI Bank. Sahi has previously co-founded eLiveBooks and has worked with firms like Talisma, Clickable, Microsoft. In his last role, he was chief product officer at BSB, a digital ventures JV between Bharti Enterprises and SoftBank.

Online lending as a category in the fintech space is growing rapidly. In just the last one year, several startups have come up in this space targeting different segments such as small businesses, students and salaried professionals; and have also attracted investors' attention. Most recently, CreditMate, an online lender focused on the used two-wheeler market in India, secured $500,000 (Rs 3.3 crore) in seed funding from early stage investment firm India Quotient.

Delhi-based online lending platform ZipLoan raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by GrowX Ventures, angel investor Sunil Kalra, Murugappa Group scion Arun Venkatachalam, and Badal Malick, ex-Snapdeal executive.

Last month, LoanTap Financial Technologies Pvt. Ltd, an online platform that offers EMI-free loans and overdraft products to salaried professionals, secured $3 million (Rs 20 crore) from Mumbai-based affluent individuals Abhishek Pandey and Jaysukh Sapra.

Lending marketplace Deal4Loans, in July raised $15 million from Franklin Templeton International Services (India) Pvt. Ltd.

In June, SME lending firm Lendingkart raised $32 million in a Series B round led by Bertelsmann India Investments and others, and Bengaluru-based KrazyBee.com, which offers loans to students with no credit history or credit cards, raised $2 million in seed funding from two Chinese firms.

Former Housing CFO Ritesh Jain teamed up with Manish Lunia and Deepak Jain in July to start an online lending platform 'FlexiLoans' for SMEs.