Digital lending platform Mintifi raises $110 million in Series D from Premji Invest, others

Digital lending platform Mintifi raises $110 mn in Series D from Premji Invest, others

International Finance Corporation (IFC)-backed Mintifi has raised $110 million as a part of its Series D funding round from Premji Invest and other existing investors as the digital lending platform for retailers and distributors is looking to deepen its presence in supply chain financing.

Norwest Venture Partners, Elevation Capital and IFC also participated in the funding round. Mintifi did not officially disclose the valuation at which it raised the funds, but in February, Moneycontrol exclusively reported that the fintech was in talks to raise at least $60 million in equity from existing investors at a pre-money valuation of $350 million. Mintifi hired Avendus Capital as an exclusive financial advisor for the deal. The company was last valued at $150-200 million.

Pre-money valuation, simply put, is the difference between the company’s post-money valuation and the investment amount. The post-money valuation is the funding raised divided by the percentage of the stake diluted. Mintifi, however, did not disclose its valuation officially. Mintifi had last raised $40 million in February 2022 from Elevation and Norwest Venture Partners.

Mintifi said that it plans to use the funds to expand its product range and add B2B (business-to-business) payments, and dealer management system. The company will also strengthen its tech infrastructure and would look to enhance engagement across the supply chain network by building an end-to-end fulfilment product range, it said. Mintifi claimed to have grown over 4x year-on-year with annualised purchases financed of over $1 billion and is expected to touch $3 billion by the end of FY24 (2023-24), the company said.

“Mintifi is on a mission to disrupt the supply chain financing industry by capitalising on its proprietary flow-based underwriting model. Our unique plug-and-play approach allows us to scale rapidly by tapping into huge outstanding receivable pool of blue-chip corporates while maintaining profitability,” said Anup Agarwal, co-founder, chief executive officer, Mintifi.

“This round of funding will allow us to accelerate our growth, expand our team, and deliver even greater value to our customers. We are thrilled to have Premji Invest partner with us on this journey and are inspired by continued faith and participation from our internal investors,” he added.

Founded in 2017 by Anup Agarwal, Ankit Mehta and Sanjoy Shome, Mintifi works with large companies and extends credit in exchange of supplying inventory across their supply chain network, including to distributors and retailers. Its clients include Tata Motors, Bridgestone Tyres, Berger Paints, Polycab, NIVEA and Jockey. Before raising funds from Norwest and Elevation, Mintifi raised equity and debt to the tune of $60 million.

The SME (small medium enterprise) digital lending space has seen immense growth over the past three years after an initial slowdown in 2020 due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Most players like Rupifi, RazorpayX and KredX lend in partnerships with banks. Others like Lendingkart and NeoGrowth Credit lend from their books too, besides through partnerships.

The space is set to grow as banks and NBFCs are willing to deploy a large amount of liquidity through partnerships—a model that enables them to lend while not taking the risk on their books entirely.

Mintifi’s fundraise comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Ministry of electronics and information technology (MeITY) have cracked down on digital lending applications due to concerns over “national security.” In February, the MeiTY blocked 94 ‘unregulated’ loan apps over alleged links to China. However, most of the blocked loan apps cater to personal lending, a category Mintifi does not serve.