BharatPe raises $50 million from Ribbit Capital, others

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Fin-tech firm BharatPe has raised $50 million in a round led by global investor Ribbit Capital and London-based hedge fund Steadview Capital.

Existing investors Sequoia Capital, Beenext Capital and Insight Partners also participated in the round, the company said in a statement on August 26.

It claims to have achieved $1 billion of annualized TPV and facilitates over 18 million UPI transactions monthly.

"The funding will help us in further strengthening our lending business and consolidating our market leadership in QR payments offline. We are determined to serve the small merchant community in India, which was largely underserved by financial institutions till date," said Ashneer Grover, co-founder and CEO of BharatPe.

Ribbit has invested in multiple fintech companies so far including Brex, Revolut & NuBank, globally. In the Indian market, besides BharatPay, it has invested in RazorPay, Capital Float, PolicyBazaar and ZestMoney.

Steadview has invested in companies such as Flipkart, Ola and Bajaj Finserv.

BharatPe aims to ensure availability of cheap credit for merchants. The company has already started disbursing loans to merchants on its platform and aims to become the business utility app for over 2 crore offline merchants in India for all their business needs.

It has established operations in 20 cities, serving over 14.5 Lakh merchants across Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Jodhpur, Ludhiana, Surat, Patna, Karimnagar, Mysore, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Warangal.

The company is targeting to serve over 50 lakh merchants on its network in the next one year.