Instamojo closes pre-Series C round with Japanese investors

Fintech start-up Instamojo, which enables MSMEs to build, manage and grow their business online, raised an undisclosed bridge round of its pre-Series C funding round from Japanese investors Base and Gunosy Capital.

The funds raised will be used to expedite the company’s growth and product road map as well as venture into emerging international markets in the coming year. Founded in 2012 by Sampad Swain, Akash Gehani and Aditya Sengupta, Instamojo secured its Series B funding of ₹50 crore in January 2019 and has raised over $10 million in funding to date, backed by investors including AnyPay, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, 500Startups, among others.

The eight-year-old start-up turned cash-flow positive in July 2020 and more than doubled its GMV to ₹2,000 crore y-o-y. It began its journey in the fintech space with its flagship product — the online payment link — that solved the digital payments challenge for several micro and small entrepreneurs. In February this year, the start-up acquired GetMeAShop, an e-commerce enablement firm which helps small businesses establish an online presence and run a store, for $5 million.

In the last 18 months, the start-up introduced credit products and logistics services under the banners of mojoCapital and mojoExpress respectively and launched Mojo Developers Programme, that opened up the Instamojo platform to external developers to create apps and solutions for MSMEs.

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Investing in growth

“Covid-19 has accelerated the momentum with a lot of small businesses wanting to come online. Early this year, we ramped up our commerce product by acquiring GetMeAShop which came with an entire suite of products in the e-commerce enablement space, an area which we will be heavily focusing on in the days to come. The idea is to help every small business establish an online presence — be it collecting payments, logistics, or even establishing the business online,” Akash Gehani, co-founder and COO, Instamojo told BusinessLine.

“With the pre-Series C round of funding, we are poised to invest in these growing areas, and continue on the path of sustainable business development. We will start the Series C fund-raise in early-mid 2021” Gehani said.

In the last few months, Instamojo introduced easy ways of going digital through its ‘Priority KYC’, ‘Sachet loans on Whatsapp’ and ‘InstaCash’ features which enabled merchants to go online and get instant access to loans. During the pandemic, the company recorded a 30 per cent rise in its merchant-base, which is now over 1.3 million merchants.

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