Norwest leads $35 mn Series D in fintech platform OfBusiness

Gurugram-based financing platform OfBusiness has raised $35.2 million in its Series D round of funding led by Norwest Venture Partners.

Existing investors Matrix Partners India and Falcon Edge also participated in the round, the company said in a statement.

The company claims to have raised around $211.17 million via equity and debt funding to date.

OfBusiness, which is operated by OfB Tech, is a technology-driven small and medium enterprises (SME) financing platform. The company claims its raw material fulfilment engine and new opportunities platform help SMEs grow.

OfBusiness says it's Lending ++ suite provides procurement and marketing solutions to underbanked SMEs.

“The only way to monetise, engage and create network effects in lending is by adding services that are inherently valuable to the customer while being profitable on a stand-alone basis for the financier. Thus, we coined the model Lender ++. We believe that in serving SMEs, we have a huge scale and need awaiting us,” said Asish Mohapatra, co-founder and chief executive officer, OfBusiness.

OfBusiness, founded in 2015 by Mohapatra, Bhuvan Gupta, Chandranshu Sinha, Nitin Jain, Ruchi Kalra, Srinath Ramakkrushnan and Vasant Sridhar, currently operates across 14 regions.

Mohapatra said the investment comes at a time when the financial services sector is facing a liquidity crunch.

“We are delighted to partner with the OfBusiness team which we believe has built an exceptional track record in tech-based SME lending to the manufacturing and core sector. We believe OfBusiness is a unique company that combines the growth, technology and scalability of the best fintech companies with high profitability and superior asset quality of top financial services companies in India,” said Niren Shah, managing director and head of India, Norwest.