Financial technology company Lendingkart Technologies on Tuesday said it raised an equity round of more than Rs 319 crore in its Series D round -- comprising Rs 233 crore as part of D1 and Rs 86.24 crore as part of D2 fundraise.
The funding will be deployed to expand the company's lending base and further reach out to small and underserved micro and small enterprises, and to further strengthen the company's technological and analytics capabilities.
This round of funding was led by existing investors including Fullerton Financial Holdings Pte Ltd ("FFH") and Bertelsmann India Investments, Sistema Asia Fund and IndiaQuotient.
Founded in 2014, Lendingkart has till now raised more than Rs 1,050 crore of equity capital from investors.
"The outbreak of COVID-19 and the resultant slowdown has had a tremendous impact on the economy. During these unprecedented times, MSMEs (micro, small & medium-sized enterprises) who are the backbone of the economy have significantly suffered, grappling with varied economic uncertainties," Harshvardhan Lunia, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Lendingkart Technologies, said in a statement.
"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," he added.
Since its inception, Lendingkart Finance, a non-deposit taking non-banking financial company (NBFC) arm of Lendingkart Group, has evaluated nearly half a million applications, disbursing more than 1,00,000+ loans to more than 89,000 MSMEs in over 1,300 cities across 29 states and union territories.
The company leverages robust in-house technology tools based on big data analytics and machine learning algorithms to evaluate creditworthiness and aims to disburse loans with minimal paperwork within 72 hours.
Lendingkart is currently based in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Kolkata but has a service reach across the country.