Aquiline Technology, RTP Global bet on fintech firm MoneyTap

Consumer lending platform MoneyTap, owned by MWYN Tech, has raised $70 million in a Series B round. The infusion is a mix of equity and debt capital. 

The Bengaluru-based company's equity round was led by New York and London-headquartered private equity firm Aquiline Technology Growth and early stage investor RTP Global and a few South Korea and Japan-based investors. 

MoneyTap is the first Indian startup in Aquiline Technology Growth’s portfolio, according to information on its website. Aquiline’s other investee companies include retirement and college savings platform Ascensus, Amsterdam-based online lender BinckBank, merchant network to shared mobility company Cargo, hedge fund administrator HedgeServ Holdings, and business process outsourcing firm Woven.

Returning investors Prime Venture Partners, a seed stage investment firm, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India, and Mumbai headquartered MegaDelta also participated in the round.

The round also includes debt capital in the form of co-lending and credit lines from Vivriti Capital and Credit Saison. 

So far, MoneyTap has raised $12.3 million, a statement said. 

Founded in 2016, MoneyTap offers on-demand collateral-free credit to its customers. It offers loans as small as Rs 3,000 to Rs 5 lakh. The platform has tied up with lenders such as RBL Bank and also received an NBFC (non banking finance company) license from the Reserve Bank of India in 2019.

Since inception, it claims to have created a loan book of over Rs 1,000 crore, with a disbursal run rate of Rs 2,500 crore a year. With the latest funding, the fintech styled as an NBFC plans to increase its loan book by Rs 5,000 crore over the next 12-18 months. 

MoneyTap was founded by trio Bala Parthasarathy, Anuj Kacker and Kunal Varma. While Parthasarthy is a co-founder of Prime Venture Partners and had quit as its MD in 2015, Kacker and Verma had earlier co-founded job search platform Tapstart.

"Our mission has been to provide credit to the growing middle-income groups, in the most flexible, convenient and affordable manner, with money being available to the customer on Tap," Kacker said.

The company will use the funds to invest further in technology, data science, and launch its NBFC operations. It also plans to significantly expand geographically from 60 to 200 Indian cities. 

"MoneyTap’s unique line of credit products address the significant need for consumer credit that is seamlessly distributed to end-users. We believe they are the leaders in the industry in terms of volume growth and managing risk at scale," Max Chee head of Aquiline Technology Growth said. 

Founded by venture investor Leonid Boguslavsky, RTP Global has investments in over 50 companies in the US, Europe and South East Asia including Yandex and Delivery Hero. In India, it has invested in credit card rewards platform Cred, owner of several cloud kitchen brands Rebel Foods, fintech firm Khatabook, among others.  

Indian fintech segment continues to attract investment from VCs. INDWealth, the wealth management platform for HNIs (high net-worth individuals), recently raised $12 million in a Series C funding round from existing investors Steadview Capital, Tiger Global Management and new investor DF International.

Point-of-sale and merchant commerce solution provider Pine Labs, last week raised an undisclosed amount from New York-based financial services major Mastercard. 

Nupay, the neo-banking business payments platform for large enterprises, governments and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), has received an undisclosed amount of funding from early-stage incubator Venture Catalysts.