Premji, Mirae, others invest in KreditBee; Xiaomi exits, Shunwei pares stake

KreditBee, a fintech company focused on consumer lending, has raised $75 million (about Rs 544 crore) in a Series C funding round from a clutch of investors.

Participating entities in this round include PremjiInvest, the investment firm set up by Wipro’s Azim Premji; Mirae Asset Naver Asia Growth Fund; Alpine Capital, the India-focused investment firm; and Arkam Ventures, a technology-focused investor.

The fundraise took place via a combination of primary and secondary transactions, Bengaluru-based KreditBee said in a statement.

KreditBee is run by Finnovation Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which also operates Krazybee Services, a systemically important non-deposit taking non-banking financial company. This entity has raised debt from entities including ICICI Bank, AU Small Finance Bank and Bank of Baroda.

Prior to this Series C fundraise, the parent company had raised over $43 million (about Rs 312 crore) in equity financing from investors including Arkam and ICICI Bank.

Other entities that KreditBee has partnered with for lending include Fullerton India Credit, IIFL, Incred and Vivriti Capital.

According to VCCEdge, other investors in KreditBee include China’s Xiaomi and Shunwei Capital. While the former has fully exited from its investment in the company, the latter has pared its stake, a person aware of the developments said. VCCircle has not yet been able to ascertain the financial details of the two firms’ stake sales.

KreditBee will use the proceeds from this latest round to expand its loan product offerings, as well as enhance its technological infrastructure with a focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning-enabled risk algorithms.

“We started with a dream to help the unserved and underserved segment who have always found it difficult to enter the formal lending sector. Our objective is to provide credit to over 180 million new-to-credit customers who were not provided formal credit earlier,” said Madhusudan E., co-founder and chief executive officer, KreditBee.

In October 2017, Krazybee raised $8 million (about Rs 58 crore) in its Series A funding round led by Xiaomi and Shunwei Capital. Other participants in that round included RK Group and E-City Ventures, which is part of Essel Group.

Other lending fintech firms that have raised capital through equity and debt infusions in recent months include merchants-focused BharatPe, students-focused Eduvanz and NIRA, which focuses on blue- and grey-collar workers.