SoftBank-backed OakNorth, which is now Europe’s most valuable fintech company, will look to create 300 additional jobs in its Indian operations in the next 12-18 months, its co-founder Joel Perlman has said.

“We should have a headcount of 500 in the next 12 months from the current 200. We should be hiring in credit analysis and software engineering. Those are the two areas we are going to focus on for our India growth,” Perlman told BusinessLine .

Currently, OakNorth has in India nearly 50 per cent of its global workforce of about 400 people.

“India is the backbone of OakNorth’s credit analysis, data engineering and software engineering efforts,” he said.

For now, OakNorth is not looking to bring its products to the Indian market, but may look at bringing it to developing economies like India after a couple of years, he said.

Perlman sees the next level of growth for OakNorth to come from three areas. First, this SME-focused digital lender will lend additional £2 billion in the UK this year. The second area of growth will be lending in the US.

Deploying its software in more banks across Europe and the US will represent the third growth area of growth for the company. The recent SoftBank-led $440 million funding deal has given the three-year-old OakNorth a valuation of $2.8 billion, making it Europe’s most-valuable private fintech company.

While SoftBank’s $100-billion Vision Fund has pumped $390 million (₹2,800 crore) into OakNorth Bank, the remaining funding ($50 million) has come from an existing investor, Clermont Group.

In a short span of three years, OakNorth has built a loan book in excess of $3 billion.

OakNorth bank now has a net worth of $1 billion and raises deposits exclusively online through digital channels.

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