FinTech: Indian B2B Lender BharatPe Raises $108M At A Valuation Of $900M
The Series D round was led by Coatue Management.
Indian B2B lender and financial services company BharatPe announced today its raise of $108 million in a Series D equity round at a valuation of $900 million. The amount comprised a primary raising of $90 million and a secondary exit for certain angel investors and employees of $18 million. Existing investor Coatue Management led the round. Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital, Beenext, Amplo, and Sequoia Capital, other existing investors, also chipped in. (BharatPe)
The equity round, which was oversubscribed within two weeks in the second half of December, follows within a month of a $35 million debt raise. Venture debt providers Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital, and Trifecta Capital participated in that funding.
The startup said it now has over $200 million in its bank, having raised $142.5 million to date.
Fintech BharatPe
BharatPe is one of the largest B2B fintech lenders in India. On average, it disburses over Rs 200 crores ($28 million) in loans to merchants every month through its NBFC partners. It has deployed more than 50,000 PoS machines and facilitates transactions of more than Rs. 900 crores ($126 million) per month on its PoS machines.
The pandemic-struck 2020 was a solid year for BharatPe, however. Its payments business grew 5x and its lending business surged 10x.
BharatPe launched India’s first UPI interoperable QR code, first ZERO MDR payment acceptance service, and first UPI payment backed merchant cash advance service. In 2020, post-Covid, BharatPe also launched BharatSwipe – India’s only ZERO MDR card acceptance terminals.
Founder-speak
Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani founded BharatPe in 2018 to bring financial inclusion to Indian merchants.
“This growth reiterates the trust that the small merchants and kirana store owners have showed in us,” said Ashneer. “This is just the beginning of our journey and we are committed to building India’s largest B2B financial services company that can serve as a one-stop destination for small merchants. For BharatPe, merchants will always be at the core of everything we build.”
“We are now going to keep our heads down and deliver US$30B TPV and build a loan book of US$ 700mn with small merchants by March 2023,” he added.
Related Story: Indian B2B Startup udaan Raises $280M Including From Tencent
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