Fintech startup HomeCapital raises funds from Varanium NexGen Fund

Homeville Consulting, which owns and operates fintech startup HomeCapital, has raised an undisclosed amount in a bridge funding round led by Varanium NexGen Fund.

Returning investors, including incubation platform Venture Catalysts, angel investment firm Singapore Angel Network and mentoring platform Venture Gurukool participated in the round, as per a statement. New investors such as Mumbai-based non-profit organisation JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation, and angel investor Shalin Shah were part of the round as well.

The Mumbai headquartered company will use the fresh funds to expand its operations and scale technology infrastructure, it said.

The startup was founded in 2017 by Lalit Menghani, Madhusudan Sharma and Prasad Ajinkya. Prior to HomeCapital, Menghani was an associate director at real estate-focussed private equity firm Milestone Capital Advisors. Sharma and Ajinkya set up health tech firm iGenetic Diagnostics and marketing firm Llama Interactive, respectively.

The startup enables home ownership by providing buyers down payment assistance. It also connects financial institutions, developers and buyers with each other. The company claims to have facilitated $125 million housing sales till date through its flagship down payment assistance programme.

In February 2019, HomeCapital raised an undisclosed amount in a bridge round, dubbed a pre-Series A round, led by Astarc Ventures. It reportedly raised capital from incubation platform Venture Catalysts as well, in October 2017.

The company currently has operations in eight cities, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Kolkata. It competes with firms such as Truevo, ConnectNPay and ZenCard in this segment.

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The housing industry, valued at $100 billion currently, is expected to touch $500 billion by 2025, according to the statement. 

“HomeCapital’s product addresses an important challenge for millennial buyers and the real estate market.  The team has a strong track record of execution both from a technology and business perspective at frugal costs,” Aparajit Bhandarkar, partner at Varanium, said.

This month has seen at least three deals in the fintech space so far.

Last week, Gurugram-based Xtracap Fintech India, which owns and operates an invoice financing platform Bridge2Capital, raised $1 million in an angel round.

Before that, Bengaluru-based fintech platform Khatabook raised $60 million in a Series B funding round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group. 

Chennai-based online credit management startup CreditMantri Finserve also raised Rs 6 crore (about $800,000 then) from returning investors venture capital firms IDG Ventures, Elevar Equity and impact investor Accion.