Lendingkart raises Rs 319 cr in growth round from returning investors

Lendingkart Technologies, an online lending platform for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), has raised Rs 319.24 crore ($42.2 million according to current exchange rates) in a growth round, dubbed as Series D. The infusion was led by returning investors Fullerton Financial Holdings, Bertelsmann India Investments, Sistema Asia Fund and India Quotient. 

The capital was raised across two tranches, with Rs 86.24 crore in the recently closed Series D2 round. An investment of Rs 212 crore as part of the round was reported in August 2019. 

With the current round, the company has raised over Rs 1,050 crore in equity capital.

Ahmedabad-based Lendingkart will use the funds to expand its lending base and strengthen its technological and analytical capabilities, the company said in a statement. 

“During these unprecedented times, MSMEs who are the backbone of the economy have significantly suffered grappling with varied economic uncertainties. The fresh round of funding will play a pivotal role in aiding us to help these impacted MSMEs to ensure business continuity amidst the ongoing crisis,” Harshvardhan Lunia, co founder and managing director at Lendingkart in the statement said.

Founded in 2014 by Lunia and Mukul Sachan, Lendingkart claims to have so far disbursed over one lakh loans to date to 89,000 MSMEs in 1300 cities. It lends through its non-baking finance company (NBFC), Lendingkart Finance, which uses big data analytics and machine learning to analyse the creditworthiness of the companies. 

The announcement comes at a time when multiple growth stage companies have raised capital from existing investors to protect valuation and internal rounds have become the norm due to the economic slowdown. Last week, beauty and personal care e-commerce platform Nykaa, micro-delivery company Milkbasket and hyperlocal discovery platform Magicpin announced raising capital from returning investors.

Sachan resigned from his role as the chief operating officer in 2019 to set up an investment management company, Optimus Capital. The company recently announced the appointment of former Amazon Pay India executive, Manish Bhatia as president of technology, analytics and capabilities.