Emergent Ventures leads funding round in enterprise software startup Kuliza

Bengaluru-based enterprise software company Kuliza Technologies Pvt. Ltd has raised $3 million (Rs 21 crore at current exchange rate) in a funding round led by venture capital firm Emergent Ventures. The latest funding comes more than two years after the company changed gears to focus on providing digital transformation solutions to the financial services sector.

The company will use the capital raised in this round to drive research and development for its flagship product Lend.in, chief executive Kaushal Sharda said in a statement. The company also plans to use the capital from the latest funding round to increase its geographical presence, he said.

Lend.in is a low-code software development platform that enables enterprises in the financial services sector to build end-to-end digital lending platforms. For instance, it has enabled Aditya Birla Finance Ltd, a non-banking financial company, to transition its largely offline end-to-end loan process to a digitally streamlined process that includes paperless operations and automated decision-making. It is also currently helping UTI Mutual Fund to rebuild the mutual fund company’s transaction and commerce platform.

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Aparna Sharma, Kuliza co-founder and operations chief, said, “Kuliza has witnessed a massive growth in the last few quarters… our product team has also grown by over 150% to serve our growing base of customers.”

Kuliza claims that since the launch of Lend.in in early 2017, over a billion dollars worth of loans have been processed by several financial services enterprises using the platform.

Founded in September 2006 by Anand Kuliza and Sharma, Kuliza started off as a social media marketing product suite that enabled enterprises to build online communities, websites, social apps, social campaigns, mobile apps and social plug-ins. In its previous fundraising, Kuliza raised an undisclosed sum in August 2013 from Mumbai-based venture capital firm Blume Ventures.

In September the same year, the company acquired social marketing platform Adepto for an undisclosed amount. Earlier in March 2011, it had acquired GizaPage, a Bengaluru-based startup that offered a social platform for brands.

Emergent Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based firm that specialises in enterprise software and smart mobility investments. Its portfolio includes Talview, Observe.AI and Minjar (acquired by Nutanix). It wasn’t immediately clear whether Kuliza’s existing investor Blume Ventures participated in the current round.