Deal Street: Financial Technology Startups Led The Funding Pack Last Week 

Six Indian startups together raised $17 million in angel, seed or venture capital funding last week – the lowest this month. The comparable number stood at $62 million in the the week prior.

Startups in the financial technology space led the funding pack, as three companies bagged the bulk of funding.

Toppr Raises $7 Million From Existing Investors

Online learning platform Toppr raised $7 million from existing investors including SAIF Partners, Helion Venture Partners and FIL Capital Management, taking the four-year old firm’s total fundraise to $12 million.

The company will use the capital to increase content and expand to new geographies, Toppr said in a media statement.

Toppr is a test preparation platform for engineering, medical and secondary school students. It caters to students between grades 5 and 12 and offers material for competitive exam training. The firm covers exams such as IIT JEE and BITSAT in engineering, medical, NEET, AIIMS, AIPMT, among others.

The firm has a team of 100 people working on content and core platform in Mumbai and a sales team of 200 people. It is also present in Hyderabad, Nagpur and Bengaluru.

Ofbusiness Raises $3.8 Million In Debt Funding

Gurgaon-based financial technology platform OfBusiness secured $3.8 million (Rs 25 crore) in debt funding from Kotak Mahindra Bank, the company said. The fresh round of funding is in addition to the $7.69 million that the company had raised from the bank earlier.

OfBusiness, which provides financing to small and medium enterprises, said it will use the money to expand its footprint, besides increasing its loan disbursal rate by reaching out to more small businesses in underserved regions.

Founded in 2015, the startup offers a single-window platform to provide secured and unsecured credit to small and medium enterprises for procuring raw material.

The company now aims to disburse Rs 700 crore in FY18 as compared to Rs 220 crore in FY17. So far, the firm has disbursed Rs 400 crore, with Rs 110 crore in assets under management. Bad loans account of less a percent of its total assets.

Personal Loan App CASHe Raises $3 Million

Mumbai-based personal loan app CASHe raised $3 million (Rs 20 crore) in debt funding from IFMR Capital, the company said in a statement.

The one-year-old startup will use the funds to accelerate growth and build the loan book of subsidiary Bhanix Finance and Investment Ltd.

Founded in in April 2016, CASHe disburses short-term personal loans of Rs 10,000-2 lakh to young, salaried professionals for tenures varying between 30-180 days. The startup uses an algorithm that determines a user’s creditworthiness by tracking the person’s mobile data usage and social media profiles.

Having disbursed nearly Rs 200 crores in loans since its launch, CASHe is looking to advance Rs 450 crore by March 2018.

The company said it takes merely eight minutes to sanction a loan after the customer submits the application. Since its launch, the app has seen over 5 lakh downloads with over 50,000 active borrowers, according to information on its website.

In April this year, CASHe raised Rs 25 crore ($3.8 million) in Series A funding led by Mathew Cyriac, former India co-head of private equity at Blackstone Group LP. The startup also secured funding from Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Matrix Partners Backs Online Lending Platform ZipLoan

Online lending platform ZipLoan, raised $3 million (Rs 20 crore) in a funding round led by Matrix Partners India to strengthen its team, expand into new geographies and enhance technology platform, it said in a statement

ZipLoan’s existing investors – Capital18’s Managing Director Sarbvir Singh, WaterBridge Ventures and Whiteboard Capital – also participated in this round.

Launched in September 2015, ZipLoan is a technology-enabled lending platform that provides loans to micro, small and medium enterprises. The startup offers loans worth Rs 1-5 lakh over a period of 6-24 months. ZipLoan is currently operating in Delhi and Indore.

The firm uses an automated credit engine or risk assessment tool called ZipScore to assess the creditworthiness of prospective customers within a few minutes.

ZipLoan has partnered with banks including IDFC Bank and non-banking financial companies such as IFMR Capital and Essel Finance which lend through its tech platform.

Others

Machine learning based parking discovery startup Park Easy, which operates Android app Peazy secured a pre-seed round of funding from Dutch Accelerator Rockstart, the company said in statement. The firm has raised around $117.4K.

Delhi-based fintech startup that offers micro-credit cards Olly Credit raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by Japan’s Incubate Fund, the company said. Former Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company CEO Sandesh Kirkire; Anand Kumar, Partner at Sand Hill Counsel and Jaipur Rugs Director Yogesh Chaudhary also participated in this round.