Venture Catalysts leads pre-Series A round in SME-focused CreditEnable

CreditEnable Ltd, an artificial intelligence-based SME credit marketplace, has raised $2 million (around Rs 14.6 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round.

The exercise in UK and India-based CreditEnable has been led by incubator and accelerator Venture Catalysts and its UK arm called JPIN Venture Catalysts Ltd.

CreditEnable, in April last year, raised an undisclosed sum from Aditya Ghosh, former president of low-cost airline IndiGo. Prior to that, it raised $5 million in a seed round from Cris Conde, Alter Global, Astia, and Floreat.

It will use the capital raised in this pre-Series A round to enhance its technological infrastructure and expand user base.

CreditEnable, which has been operating in India since 2017, was set up by CEO Nadia Sood and CFO Varun Sahni. According to her LinkedIn page, Sood is an alumnus of Columbia SIPA and has worked with firms including Nestlé and Impact Investment Partners. 

Sahni is a graduate of The London School of Economics and has worked at firms including Acumen Impact Investment Partners.

CreditEnable says it helps SMEs by simplifying the process of securing a business loan, as well as helping them manage their credit profile. 

Lender clients it has partnered with include IDFC First Bank, ICICI Bank, Deutsche Bank, and DBS.

“We have invested in a number of unicorn companies at their very early stage and CreditEnable has this potential,” Venture Catalysts co-founder and president Apoorva Ranjan Sharma said. 

Venture Catalysts is one of India’s most-active early-stage investors. The firm was set up in 2015 by Sharma, Anuj Golecha, Anil Jain and Gaurav Jain. It invests between $250,000 and $1.5 million in early-stage startups and provides networking opportunities and mentoring to portfolio companies.

Some of the recent additions to its portfolio include agritech firms Qzense and AgriGator, Noida-based financial-technology firm YPay, performing arts platform STAGE, insurance-technology startup Ensuredit, AI-based culinary platform Klovechef, and beverage brand BrewHouse Tea Brewing Co.