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Digital lending start-up, Qbera is in talks to raise $15 million in Series B funding, which it expects to close by the year end. The start-up has raised $5million to date.
With total loan disbursals of ₹130 crore since its inception in February 2017, of which ₹90 crore were disbursed in FY 2019, the Bengaluru based start-up is targeting loan disbursal of ₹300 crore in the current fiscal and expand deeper into smaller cities and towns.
Qbera provides loans to potential borrowers who are overlooked by banks and financial institutions. These borrowers make up a large segment of the population and include individuals with incomes less than ₹6 lakh per annum. The start-up offers personal unsecured loans of ₹1 lakh-₹10 lakh in 24-48 hours to salaried individuals who are between 25 – 34 years of age. Interest rates range from 11 per cent to 30 per cent, payable in 1-5 years.
“We have just launched our Series B fund-raise for $15 million, which we expect to close by the year end. The funds will be used to further our growth, product expansion, technology, data sciences, hiring and expansion into Tier-2,3,4 cities. When we last raised $3 million in September 2018, we were disbursing ₹3.5 crore worth of loans per month, achieving ₹15 lakh in revenue. Today, we are disbursing ₹12 crore in loans per month and achieving ₹55 lakh in revenue” said Aditya Kumar, founder and CEO, Qbera.
“While we currently serve salaried individuals with a median income of ₹30,000 a month, we have recently expanded our target segment to include employees of proprietorships and partnerships” added Kumar.
Qbera reaches consumers in over 180 cities across 16,000 pin codes.
Asked about its Non-Performing Assets, he said, “We have managed to maintain a certain asset quality with an NPA of 0.6 per cent.” The start-up has a risk sharing arrangement with its institutional partners such as RBL Bank, IndusInd Bank, IIFL, YesBank and Fullerton India, where it takes on the first 1-2 per cent of principal loss, in exchange for which it is given the flexibility to originate loans to a larger set of consumers to whom the partner institutions cannot directly lend.
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