Digital lenderCapital Float (Zen Lefin Pvt Ltd) has raised $22 million (₹144 crore) in equity funding from Amazon, which is an extension of its Series C fund-raise of $45 million equity last August led by Ribbit Capital, SAIF Partners, Sequoia India and Creation Investments.

This latest fund-raise takes the company’s total equity funding to nearly $110 million from Amazon and other existing investors.

Additionally, the company, which is looking to get profitable in the next 12 months, has also raised debt amounting to $130 million from leading banks and NBFCs.

“The fresh fund-raise will be used in the areas of product innovation to improve the digital user experience and for the ease of applying for loans and continued investments in the credit assessment algorithm,” Sashank Rishyasringa, Co-founder, Capital Float, told BusinessLine .

“In the past six months, we have expanded into new customer segments with the launch of two new verticals – school and franchisee financing – and achieved good overall growth with 50,000 new customers pan India. We have disbursed loans totalling ₹4,500 crore to date and ₹2,500 crore in FY 2018 alone. With this investment from Amazon, we plan to add three lakh customers and originate over ₹5,000 crore in loan disbursals in FY 2019.”

Lending model

The company has a unique model of lending from its balance sheet as well as a co-lending model of loans with other lenders such as large banks and NBFCs.

India is home to over 50 million micro, small and medium businesses, which face major challenges in raising loans from banks for working capital requirements. While they have access to loans from financial institutions and money lenders, exorbitant interest rates tie down the borrower to a chronic cycle of debt. This is where firms such as Capital Float, which has 60,000 borrowers in 300 cities, step in.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW