All Posts in Funding

|In: Fintech|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Breaking new grounds in the formal finance sector through innovative and dynamic use of technology, Rubique Technologies Private Limited, India’s largest online financial matchmaking platform has raised an undisclosed amount funding led by Japan’s Recruit Group and Russian venture capital management company, Emery Capital. The funding round saw participation from Blacksoil Group & existing investor Kalaari Capital.

The funds from this round will enable Rubique to further strengthen its technological and analytics capabilities. The company also aims to expand its credit product offerings to deepen its reach to small enterprises and reach out to underserved micro enterprises.

Established in the year 2014, Rubique has demonstrated how frugal innovation, propelled by disruptive technologies in the traditional lending space, can simplify complex financial procedures to fulfill every financial aspiration in the simplest, shortest and speediest way possible. Since its inception the company has already facilitated loan disbursement worth approximately Rs. 2,670 crores and over 82,000 credit card setups through its platform.

The involvement of Recruit Group and Emery Capital, both having an international expertise in facilitating adoption of newer technologies across sectors and geographies, as well as its existing investors, underlines the trust that Rubique has generated in the global market.

Speaking on the announcement, Manav Jeet, MD & CEO, Rubique said

The success of the latest funding round is a strong indication of the trust our investors have in our vision, our technology-thinking of financial services as well as in our strong focus on robust unit economics model. We have managed to successfully stand out in the fintech space as an innovator par excellence and one of the genuine success stories of the domain through our unique asset light business model.

With the domain expertise our investors bring on-board, we look forward to leveraging their insights as we build a leading platform for digital lending in India. We would also like to thank our existing investors for continuing to support us in our growth journey.

Apart from this round we are also in the final stages of closing another tranche’ of funding, to be led by couple of marquee investors. We are excited about our next phase of growth and will continue to develop superior technology products for the ecosystem players thereby aiming to bring a symbiotic relationship between banks and technology, bridge India’s credit gap.

Rubique has recently closed 200K customers and have generated revenue of around $7.2 Mn [INR 47 Cr], clocking a revenue of around 3.5 Crores Month on Month. With a consistent growth, Rubique has been unit economics positive at the transactional level and will be aiming to break-even in 2019 & going for Rs. 100 Crores revenue by 2021.

Speaking on the fund raise, Ivan Savelyev from Emery Capital said

Rubique’s unique business model and technology thinking has an impressive ability to hit the ground running to build a financially strong nation with easy access to credit to all sectors of the society – Businesses and Millennials.

We believe that the deployment of technology to develop scalable and accessible financial services platforms, incorporating big data analytics and machine learning, will be critical to any lending business serving the under-banked and underserved customers in India. We are committed to supporting Rubique on its journey to become a leading fintech player in India and also help and share our experience with similar models in other continents & explore synergies to work with them.

With the world constantly innovating, the advanced technologies such as Blockchain, Big Data and AI used by Rubique analyses multiple data points to assess the creditworthiness of the customers and provide them the offers they are eligible for, thereby removing the manual efforts in the loan processing system. The company has recently built a data science team which leverages its rich customer data and bank credit policies to build a proprietary AI based Matchmaking and ranking algorithm that provides a customized list to each consumer based on his/her needs and profile. This offers manifold advantages in terms of higher approval rates, better customer satisfaction and improved sourcing to its financial partners.

Eyeing the future growth of the company, Rubique envisions becoming the largest online financial matchmaking platform in India and aiming for entire ecosystem growth including customers, financial institutions & influencers. With focus on maintaining its model asset-light, Rubique is planning to invest in Data science & leverage insights generated to build stronger business propositions.

About the Recruit Group

Founded in 1960, the Recruit Group creates and provides platforms that connect companies and consumers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the Group offers a wide range of services in a variety of areas including human resources, education, housing and real estate, bridal, travel, automobiles, dining and beauty. The Group has more than 45,000 employees and operates in more than 60 countries. For more information, please visit Recruit Group

About Rubique

Rubique was formed in November 2014, with a vision to fulfill every financial aspiration in the customer’s life cycle in the simplest, shortest and the speediest way through a wide range of loan, credit card and insurance products. Built on a proprietary AI based recommendation engine, Rubique’s marketplace platform has been integrated with financial institutions’ systems for real-time processing and providing online approvals to the customers. The advanced technology solution not only reduces the processing time significantly, but the data analytics done on multiple data points helps bring predictability and assess creditworthiness offering best deals to the customers.

Named as ‘The Most Promising Brand’ by The Economic Times and selected among the top 20 lending fintech players in India by the Financial Express’ Best Bank Awards Jury recently, Rubique has also garnered a lot of international recognition and accolades.

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Capital Float [Zen Lefin Pvt Ltd], India’s leading digital lender has raised debt of €6 million [INR 48 crores] from the Netherlands-based asset management company, Triodos Investment Management. The latter is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Triodos Bank, one of the world’s leading sustainable banks, and manages €3.3 billion in AUM.  This takes Capital Float’s total debt raise to $130 million [INR 840 crores]. The company has raised $107 million [INR 695 crores] in equity thus far.

Image Source – Capital Float

Triodos IM is the first international investment management company to invest in debt at Capital Float through its investment funds Triodos Fair Share Fund and Triodos Microfinance Fund. Through this collaboration, Triodos IM intends to increase its strategic focus on SME lending in India. Capital Float will leverage the funds from the debt raise for the purpose of onward lending, as the company continues adding to its existing AUM of over INR 1200 crores.

Gaurav Hinduja and Sashank Rishyasringa, Co-founders, Capital Float, said

We are delighted to have Triodos IM join our prominent list of investors. We have previously raised debt from some of the largest banks and NBFCs in India, such as Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, Reliance Capital and Northern Arc Capital [formerly IFMR Capital].

This collaboration with Triodos IM indicates Capital Float’s ever-growing reputation in the international financial circles. Investments like these will help put digital lending in India in the international spotlight. With this fresh injection of funds, we will strengthen our focus on expanding our MSME borrower segments.

Aditya Mohan, Senior Investment Officer said

Triodos IM has been working with companies that are the frontiers of financial services in emerging economies for over two decades, and the role of technology in delivering financial services in these markets has increased exponentially in recent years.

We are pleased to partner with Capital Float and are enthused by their approach of using technology as an enabler for collaboration in financial services. We look forward to contributing to a digital eco-system which can make credit accessible and affordable to MSMEs.

Northern Arc Capital performed a crucial role in facilitating the debt raise between Capital Float and Triodos IM.

Dr. Kshama Fernandes – MD & CEO, Northern Arc Capital, said

Northern Arc partners with clients across various sectors and phases of their life-cycle. Basis our diligence we take balance sheet exposures and enable these entities to access reputed global and domestic investors who value Northern Arc’s skin-in-the-game.We are excited to have played a critical role in an important transaction.

The investment by Triodos IM in Capital Float is a great demonstration of our commitment to back clients in every way possible along their growth path.

About Capital Float

Capital Float is the pioneer of digital lending in India. The company leverages technology and big data analytics to deliver innovative credit products to businesses and individuals across the country. Through its proprietary digital loan underwriting and origination platform, it has been able to deliver financing solutions to large sections of the economy traditionally underserved by large financial institutions. It has also developed partnerships to finance SMEs across various ecosystems such as e-commerce, manufacturing supply chains, retail, travel and hospitality, and digital remittances.

Founded in 2013, Capital Float is the trade name for Zen Lefin Private Limited, a Non-Banking Finance Company [NBFC] registered with the Reserve Bank of India. For more information, please visit Capital Float

|In: Fintech|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Capital Float [Zen Lefin Pvt Ltd], India’s largest digital lender has raised $22 Million [INR 144 crores] in equity funding from Amazon. This latest fund raise takes Capital Float’s total equity funding to nearly $110 million from Amazon and other existing investors including Ribbit Capital, SAIF Partners, Sequoia India, Creation Investments, and Aspada. In addition, the company has also raised debt amounting to $130 million till-date [INR 840 crores] from leading banks and NBFCs. Capital Float has enabled large numbers of SMEs with customized credit solutions and is actively expanding into new customer segments. The company’s unique model of lending from own balance sheet as well as a co-lending model of loans for other lenders [banks and NBFCs] gives it access to large pools of capital to serve a vast customer base.

Image Source – Capital Float

Gaurav Hinduja and Sashank Rishyasringa, Co-founders, Capital Float, said

We are tremendously excited to bring Amazon on board as an investor at this key juncture in Capital Float’s journey. This partnership has enormous potential. In the past 6 months alone, we’ve added several new products and crossed INR 1,200 crores [$185 million] in overall loan portfolio outstanding. We have also achieved tremendous growth on the customer acquisition front, adding 50,000 new customers across the country. With this investment from Amazon, we enter FY19 with relentless focus to add 300,000 customers and originate over INR 5,000 crores [$800 million] in loans this year.

The funds will be used to bolster Capital Float’s proprietary end-to-end digital loan origination system and to design innovative credit solutions for customers.

Amit Agarwal, SVP and Country Manager, Amazon India, said

We are excited to work with Capital Float and invest alongside other investors. We are highly impressed with what Gaurav and Sashank have built and we back missionary entrepreneurs and management teams. Credit in India is highly under-penetrated and Capital Float is bringing the right kind of credit solutions to the underserved and informally served segments of SMEs to help realize their full potential. The company is well positioned for the digital age with its strong technology and data-driven approach to lending.

About Capital Float

Capital Float is the pioneer of digital lending in India. The company leverages technology and big data analytics to deliver innovative credit products to businesses and individuals across the country. Through its proprietary digital loan underwriting and origination platform, it has been able to deliver financing solutions to large sections of the economy traditionally underserved by large financial institutions. It has also developed partnerships to finance SMEs across various ecosystems such as e-commerce, manufacturing supply chains, retail, travel and hospitality, and digital remittances.

Founded in 2013, Capital Float is the trade name for Zen Lefin Private Limited, a Non-Banking Finance Company [NBFC] registered with the Reserve Bank of India. For more information, please visit Capital Float

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

icanstay, a portal known for making luxury hotel stay available for business travelers, has raised fresh round of funding of Rs 1.30 Cr from an angel investor Manoj Prasad, executive chairman at Singapore-based venture capital & management advisory firm MP Morgan Capital Partners Pte. Ltd.

Image Source – icanstay

This is addition to Rs 2.24 Cr raised few months earlier from the same investor who has picked up 6.54% stake in the company. The overall funds acquired are USD Five Hundred Fifty Thousand. This investment values FTTL at more than Rs 36 Cr, in a short span of just nine months since its commercial launch.

Commenting on his investment, Manoj Prasad, the angel investor said

We see tremendous growth opportunities in the travel and hospitality space in India. FTTL is an exciting start-up with a unique model that brings value to all its stakeholders – customers as well as hotels and is well positioned for growth. We are excited to partner with such an exceptional management team and continue to build and grow this business over the long term.

icanstay is launched to fulfill aspiration of millions of Indians, who have not yet experienced stay in a Luxury Hotel. As per market study, less then 2% Indians have experienced stay in a luxury hotel. There is a huge aspirational class of customers, as per an estimate 10% of the total population, who wish and desire to stay in a luxury hotel. And as on date there are 125000 luxury rooms in India, which will grow to 165000 by 2020. With industry average of 62% occupancy, 47500 rooms go vacant daily. icanstay is a market place/bridge for a large base of aspirational consumers and luxury hotels with vacant rooms.

icanstay offers 4 & 5 Star rooms all over India at an amazing and fixed price of Rs. 2999 [include GST] all around the year. No seasonal surges or city-based price. The portal wishes to upgrade budget hotel customer to Luxury hotel and make this his/her way of life. Users can purchase an open voucher valid for 11 months, which can be utilized in more than 50 cities.

Puneet Gupta, COO and Co-Founder, FTTL said

The investment would be utilized to beef up the technology and expand hotel network. We are strongly placed to help hotels fill their vacant rooms and increase their yield per room. Further we are continuously strengthening our product offering and user experience. We are targeting a turnover of Rs. 700 Crores by 2020.

The company’s USP has always been the price and flexibility that it offers to its customers, making luxury hotel stay affordable for as many people as possible.

About First Time Travellers Ltd

First Time Travellers Ltd is a Delhi-based online start-up in the travel e-commerce segment. It’s vision is to provide upgraded hotel experiences to aspirational consumers and frequent travelers in the country. For more information, please visit icanstay

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Mojro, a smart urban logistics platform has raised $650K investment led by 1Crowd and its investor community. The investment will be used for technology development, team expansion for marketing and building partnerships with fleet owners.

Image Source – Mojro

As Urban Logistics is a growing and sizable problem, Mojro’s offers a machine learning driven intra-city logistic planning and optimization platform. The platform can be used by large and medium businesses to optimize their logistic needs in terms of fleet utilization, space utilization and cost optimization. Mojro has also struck partnerships with fleet owners providing them modern day techniques to improve service quality and providing businesses the opportunity to plan and execute for their logistic needs through a single platform.

Kishan Aswath, CEO, Mojro, said

Mojro envisions to be the world’s largest technology enabled Logistics Platform that seamlessly automates end to end logistics needs of business entities and provides them an efficient & effective means to store, package and move goods.

1Crowd is a unique angel investment platform focused on early stage ventures. It has more than 600 investors, 70 mentors and has made over 13 investments since March 2016. With the funds, the company will be able to leverage 1Crowd’s ecosystem of mentors, industry connects and investor community to benefit from strategic to operational support.

Anup Kuruvilla, Co-Founder of 1Crowd, said

Along with a well-respected, experienced and dedicated team, Mojro addresses key modern day challenge of urban logistics. While there are several players in the logistics market, Mojro has the unique value proposition of being the only player in the market that has Optimization and On the Ground Execution as two cornerstones of its platform. The company has positioned itself as a technology-assisted platform solution company solving several issues of fleet capacity, route planning and Fleet Supply & Operations, helping fleet owners maximize the benefits from their assets.

The startup was founded in 2016 by Kishan Aswath, Amit Kulkarni, Ranganath Seetharamu and Swaminath Jeyachandran all having significant years of professional experience. Veteran banker M.A. Ravi Kumar and angel investor Sounder Kannan would join the Board of the company.

Sounder Kannan, Director, Naga Limited said

With a clear focus on optimizing the fragmented intra-city supply chain, Mojro aims to be providing world class solutions with aright blend of Physical & Digital services at scale.

About Mojro

Mojro aims to bring efficient planning, optimization of resources complemented by transparent execution to intra-city logistics. The platform uses machine learning, big data analytics, heuristics, and cognitive science for optimization of route, vehicle, space utilization and cost taking into account various constraints for both shipper and receiver including time, SLAs, type of goods & load distribution. For more information, please visit Mojro

About 1Crowd

1Crowd is a unique angel investment platform focused on investing in early stage ventures. 1Crowd and its investor community has made 15 investments in the early stage startup segment. 1Crowd has close to 600 investors on board and over 70 eminent people as mentors. For more information, please visit 1Crowd

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

BeatO [short for beating the ring ‘O’ of Diabetes], a comprehensive platform dedicated to improving the lives of those living with diabetes has raised an institutional round of $1.3 million led by Leo Capital and co-led by Blume ventures.

Gautam Chopra, Co-Founder, and CEO, BeatO, said

We are extremely excited to associate with partners like Leo and Blume. India is expected to have 100M diabetics by 2030. This puts tremendous pressure on all stakeholders in the healthcare eco-system both from a cost and well-being perspective to specially cater to this large demographic. This funding is a re-enforcement to the fact that we are solving a problem of massive scale.

Yash Sehgal & Abhishek Kumar, Co-founders, BeatO, said

With this funding, we plan to continue adding greater value to our customers through even better technology and distribution. We will also supplement our existing range of product categories including diabetic snacks and specialty foods. Our goal is to be an indispensable ally to a person living with diabetes.

BeatO makes blood glucose monitoring easy with its smartphone-based glucometer combined with support from experts. This is augmented by their wide range of diabetes-specific food and retail products, thereby catering to all the needs of a person with diabetes. Started just over 2 years ago, BeatO currently serves 25,000 active customers in more than 1,500 cities, some even as far as Baramullah in Kashmir. This depicts the powerful impact that a virtual and holistic solution can have in providing healthcare to everyone. BeatO is currently fulfilling over 5,000 transactions a month.

Speaking about the funding, Rajul Garg, Founder of Leo Capital, said

India is the diabetes capital of the world. We have looked deeply at chronic disease solutions and BeatO has been able to demonstrate an approach that diabetics find useful month over month. BeatO’s focus on a solution very unique to India is what attracted us.

Arpit Agarwal, Principal, Blume Ventures, said

BeatO is different from other players in the segment given their approach allows patients to manage diabetes effortlessly by having a wide array of healthy lifestyle choices available to them on a single platform.The founding team is perhaps one of the best in the industry and we feel confident that they will capture the opportunity in this space successfully.

BeatO had previously raised an angel round from a few individual investors including Rajeev Chitrabhanu, an early investor in Nazara Technologies, Rentomojo, etc and Vishal Sampat, who besides being an angel investor was also the Founder of Convonix, India’s largest digital agency acquired by Publicis.

BeatO has grown 10x in revenue within the last one year. It boasts of having facilitated more than 250,000 glucose readings and has over 80% repeat order rate of acquired customers. The company plans to continue adding products across categories which are useful for diabetics and leveraging technology to make them accessible in the near future.

About BeatO

BeatO is a full stack platform for people living with diabetes that was started in September 2015by Gautam Chopra, Yash Sehgal and Abhishek Kumar. With its unique mobile based monitoring solution, combined with diabetes-specific products such as diabetic snacks, specialty food, footwear etc, BeatO focuses on addressing all needs of their customers under one roof and supports them in making the right choices. For more information, please visit BeatO

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Karma Healthcare, a Rajasthan-based startup in the technology-led healthcare space, has raised INR 3 crore [~USD 500,000] in equity funding from early stage investment firm 1Crowd, existing investors Ankur Capital, Ennovent Capital and Beyond Capital, and angel investors including Mr Anil Chatta [an experienced healthcare professional based in the Middle East].

Image Source – Fund Raising

Founded by ISB Hyderabad alumnus Jagdeep Gambhir, Karma Healthcare aims to provide high quality, affordable, equitable and reliable healthcare to India’s underserved population via a differentiated business model.The company has combined the human touch of a nurse with the scalability of shared doctor services via real-time online video consultations, and delivers healthcare to consumer via its e-Doctor clinics. Karma Healthcare’s overarching vision is to disrupt the healthcare landscape, by establishing a pan India network of healthcare clinics.The company thus seeks to make definitive large scale impact and in-turn take significant steps towards ‘healthcare for all’.

Karma has completed over 50,000 consultations, and currently operates 10 e-Doctor clinics in the states of Rajasthan and Haryana which deliver a comprehensive ecosystem of clinical treatment, quality medicines and diagnostics at competitive rates. With the new funding, more than 10 Lakh patients in the underserved communities of India will be able to access quality healthcare services through Karma’s network of e-Doctor clinics.

The company has developed an in-house technology suite that helps it deliver standardized care, including a bespoke Clinical Decision Support System, and is extending its capabilities to deep learning driven diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. Karma is supported by marquee organizations such as the Tata Trusts, UBS Optimus Foundation and WISH Foundation.

Jagdeep Gambhir, CEO of Karma Healthcare, said

We are grateful to all our investors for reposing faith and commitment in our work. This new funding will help us scale our operations as well as enhance our technology offering to improve quality of care and provide great patient experience.

Anil Gudibande, Co-founder of 1Crowd, said

Karma has vividly demonstrated that a viable business model, with enormous socio-economic impact can indeed be targeted at the lower half of the pyramid. The simplicity with which they combine knowledge and technology, makes for a unique venture. We look forward to working with them as they enter a very exciting phase of growth.

Ritu Verma, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Ankur Capital, said

Karma’s deep engagement and understanding of healthcare delivery has allowed it to develop an impressive healthcare analytics and decision support system. We look forward to working with Karma in rolling this out to a much wider set of consumers in the next phase of their growth.

About 1Crowd

1Crowd is an early stage investor and has made over 15 investments in areas such as FinTech, healthcare, education, enterprise technology and deep technology [including BioTech, NanoTech and CleanTech]. 1Crowd recently announced the first close of its maiden venture capital fund. Ankur Capital is an early stage venture capital fund investing in opportunities created by rising aspirations and digital access for the next billion Indians. Ankur Capital looks for innovative business models that can address core challenges in agritech, food, healthcare, skill development and education among others. For more information, please visit 1Crowd

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

ofo, the world first and largest station-free bike-sharing platform, announced a new $866 million round of funding led by Alibaba Group, with participation from Haofeng Group, Tianhe Capital, Ant Financial and Junli Capital. The strategic financing presents the highest funding record in the bike-sharing industry and marks a new era for operational efficiency of the bike-sharing system.

Image Source – ofo

As a precedent of asset mobilization in the bike-sharing industry, ofo uses a combination of debt and equity financing for this round. ofo will drive long-term success independently with the continuing support of leading investors.

Dai Wei, Founder & CEO of ofo said

As the global leader in the bike-sharing sector, ofo has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. ofo will continue to put our customers first and lead the bike-sharing industry with technological innovation and efficient operations.

According to the recent industry report, ofo has already achieved dominant market place globally. The service improves the urban transport environment by reducing traffic congestion, saving energy and promoting better living. It is expected that the global number of shared bike users will increase to 1 billion in the next two years.

ofo bikes in India

To date, ofo has operations in over 250 cities across 21 countries alongside widespread usage by over 200 million global users with more than 6 billion efficient, convenient and green rides, totaling to 32 million rides per day.

About ofo

Founded in 2014, ofo is the world’s first and largest ‘station-free’ bike-sharing platform operated via an online mobile application. The development of ofo platform was inspired by the concept of sharing economy and facilitated by smartphone technology, aiming to tackle ‘the last mile’ challenge in urban areas.

As of today, ofo is ramping up operations in over 250 cities across 21 countries. It generates 32 million transactions daily and has provided over 200 million global users with 6 billion efficient, convenient and green rides, which have reduced carbon emissions by over 3.24 million tons in total, the equivalent of saving more than 920 million liters of gasoline or reducing 1.55 million tons of PM2.5 emissions. For more information, please visit ofo