What This New Series B Could Mean For Personal Loan Borrowing in India? With smartness being the key criteria for entrepreneurship, we have been witnessing startups coming out with creative solutions to mitigate at least one layer of societal problems
By Rahul R
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With smartness being the key criteria for entrepreneurship, we have been witnessing startups coming out with creative solutions to mitigate at least one layer of societal problems. Now, with investors (equity, debt, and angel) also seeking smart models, it is only imminent that they are also looking at issue mitigation by mentoring smart models. In this regard, a lot of sectors today have indeed become smart due to smart technology disruption. This trend has also extended to the traditionally cumbersome consumer lending domain.
Analysing "smart financing"
The financial sector, inclusive of consumer lending and borrowing has now started to witness online systems wherein consumers can discover lenders and even apply to these lenders who are, more often than not, eager to lend through comparatively quicker processes. Traditionally, loan sanctions take days at a stretch through the offline route at banks.
Customers are benefitted through quicker loan approvals, smarter evaluation of credit scores, and relatively rapid credentials verification.
Now, with accessibility of smart financial solutions being the centre of attraction, new venture capital fund Ganesh Ventures established by Jessica Wong to cater to smart entrepreneurial solutions in India, has led Series B investments that saw venture capital to the tune of USD 10 Million being raised by IndiaLends – a digital platform that facilitates online borrowing and lending in India with respect to personal loans and credit analysis.
Series B fundraising
At this juncture, it is worth noting that raising Series B venture capital, from the perspective of startups, requires more than smart entrepreneurial models. Actual use-cases and potential business models scalability also play a major role in getting investors to invest in startups.
IndiaLends' recent Series B produced USD 10 Million from as many as 5 investors; with Ganesh Ventures and ACPI Investments (Alok Oberoi) leading the round.
"After years of exploring and analyzing India market, we can say with confidence that our investment and post-investment management strategy has worked very well," stated Jessica Wong – Founder and Managing Partner at Ganesh Ventures.
With the latest Series B, IndiaLends' total raised capital is now in excess of USD 15 Million. The startup had raised Series A in November 2016; this was preceded by a couple of venture rounds in 2015.
Other investors include the likes of Deepak Shahdapuri, American Express Ventures, and AdvantEdge Partners.
In related developments, healthcare startup SigTuple raised USD 19 Million from the likes of Accel and IDG. This investment takes SigTuple's overall equity fundraise to USD 25 Million. The startup has been associated with investors such as Pi Ventures, Axilor, Binny Bansal, Endiya Partners, Venture Highway, and Trifecta Capital.
