FlexiLoans.com, an online lending platform that provides working capital loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has raised $90 million as a part of its Series B funding round from private equity (PE) firms and family offices, the company said in a statement on June 7.
Denmark-based PE firm MAJ Invest, UK-based fintech investor Fasanara Capital and the family offices of Harry Banga and Yogesh Mahansaria along with many existing shareholders such as Sanjay Nayar, participated in the funding round, the company said.
This investment marks Fasanara Capital’s first SME fintech investment in India, FlexiLoans.com claimed.
“We are very excited to have institutional players MAJ Invest, Fasanara Capital and the Banga and Mahansaria family offices join us in our mission to help small businesses grow in India. Their experience in developing global fintech companies will help us in creating better products as well as organizational building,” said Deepak Jain, Co-founder, FlexiLoans.com.
FlexiLoans.com said that the investment round provides it a strong runway for its growth as it comes at a time when there is a fintech push by the government, especially for the MSME (micro, small, medium enterprises) sector.
The company said it will use the funds for technology development and will more than double its MSME book via its co-lending, BNPL (buy-now-pay-later) and supply chain finance platforms. FlexiLoans.com will invest in technology to strengthen customer automation, risk management and analytics capabilities. FlexiLoans.com currently has a platform for lending and pricing.
The company said it provides ‘loans at a click’ to small businesses and claimed to have disbursed over Rs 1,700 crore $220million to MSMEs across 1,600 cities, entirely via digital originations as it has zero branches.
The company claims to disburse over Rs 100 crore monthly and said it plans to double this run rate over the next year, with its co-lending platform contributing a significant share of growth. FlexiLoans.com.com claimed that it digitally attracts more than 100,000 applications a month and said that it has a strong presence in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns across India.
FlexiLoans.com.com said it had previously raised $20 million in Seed and Series A funding rounds led by Mr. Sanjay Nayar. FlexiLoans.com.com said it has partnerships with more than 120 ecosystem companies for financing sellers and vendors associated with the platforms. The companies include e-commerce players like Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, Myntra, among others, FlexiLoans.com.com said.
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FlexiLoans.com said it has built a co-lending platform, called Bi-frost, which provides end-to-end digital sourcing, underwriting, and servicing technology. The platform has contributed to 70 percent of FlexiLoans.com’s growth for the past year, the company said. FlexiLoans.com.com’s supply chain solutions also grew five-fold in 2021-22 (FY22), the company claimed.
“India is a strong market for MSME financing and we are delighted to partner with FlexiLoans.com, which is amongst the pioneers in the digital MSME lending space in India and shares a similar commitment to Fasanara’s to reduce the financing gap for MSMEs,” said Francesco Filia, chief executive officer of Fasanara Capital.
“Embedded financing to merchants in the e-commerce ecosystem is a sweet spot that we invest in across the world and FlexiLoans.com.com has a strong product-led partnership in India for the same,” Filia added.
Asia Link Advisors and Axis Capital were advisors for the fundraise.
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