India’s Lendingkart raises $30M to help small businesses access working capital

As India continues its race to adopt digital payments at a pace and scale seen rarely worldwide, the country’s startups are quickly building solutions to bring financial services to businesses. And they are attracting significant capital from local investors and global giants to scale their ambitions.

Lendingkart, one of the many startups in the country that is helping micro, small and medium-sized enterprises access working capital, has raised $30 million as part of its Series D financing round, it said on Friday. Existing investors Fullerton Financial Holdings, Bertelsmann India Investments and India Quotient funded the round. The five-year-old, Bangalore-based startup has raised $143 million to date.

Lendingkart Finance has issued over 60,000 loans to more than 55,000 small and medium-sized enterprises in 1,300 cities across India. In a statement, the startup said it would use the fresh capital to widen its lending range and find new clients. It also wants to refine and bulk up its product offering.

Like in other developing markets, many businesses in India, including those that are operating in the exporting space, have to wait for days before they get paid from their previous clients. This creates an immense challenge for many who don’t have any savings. Their options are severely limited as traditional banks find them too risky to lend money.

“Micro and small businesses represent a vibrant yet underserved segment of the Indian economy. The support of all of our customers, investors and employees is empowering us to build the leading financial services platform for this segment,” said Harshvardhan Lunia, co-founder and managing director of Lendingkart.

Lendingkart competes with a handful of businesses, including Gurgaon-based Indifi, which raised $21 million earlier this week, Bangalore-based Zest Money, Five Star Finance, Capital Float and, in some capacity, Drip Capital, which recently raised $25 million.

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