Lendingkart Finance Limited, today announced that it has raised $10 million (INR 67 crores) debt fund from Kotak Mahindra Bank, Aditya Birla Financial Services and other financial institutions. As the company expands its reach to over 700 cities across the country, these funds will come in handy to re-stock the loan book, allowing them to widen its scope to SMEs country-wide. As of today, Lendingkart Finance has disbursed over 12000 loans to more than 9500 SMEs across 23 diverse sectors.

Speaking on the latest development, Harshvardhan Lunia, CEO and Co-founder, Lendingkart Technologies said “For Lendingkart Finance, the influx of capital at strategic intervals is the key driver to promote financial inclusivity amongst SMEs in India. We are extremely proud to have partners like Kotak Mahindra Bank, Aditya Birla Financial Services, and others who are enabling us to provide critical working capital to SMEs. All of us recognize that SMEs are the backbone of the economy and if India is to continue to witness high growth, then supporting them is non-negotiable. While the funds from this round will be used to replenish our loan book and widen our range across the country, we are confident that our relationship with these companies will help us collectively work towards empowering SMEs through seamless availability of working capital.”

Manish Kothari, Senior EVP & Business Head, Corporate Banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, “We, at Kotak Mahindra believe that each start-up business has its own unique set of requirements linked to their business model and hence, understanding the nature of business and structuring the solution around it is essential. We are excited to work with Lendingkart Finance since we believe they have a unique and efficient proposition to finance customers – largely in a space which is not as effectively addressed by most banks.”

Aligned with the Government of India’s agenda of building financial inclusion, Lendingkart Finance is working towards ensuring availability of working capital for SMEs across the country that currently do not have access to credit or are capital deficient.

Lendingkart Finance uses sophisticated in-house technology tools based on big data analytics and machine learning algorithms to evaluate its client’s creditworthiness. About 5,000 data variables are assessed to determine factors like financial health, comparative market performance, social reliability & compliance. Once the evaluation process is completed, loan amount is disbursed to the deserving borrower within 72 hours from the time of application.

Lendingkart Finance has expanded its operations pan India and is present in over 700 cities across 29 states and 7 UTs, offering quick and easy collateral-free loans with minimal paperwork. Till date, over 250,000 SMEs have reached out to Lendingkart Finance for their credit requirement.

In June 2016, the company had raised Rs. 205 crores ($32M) in new financing; out of which $ 20 million was raised as equity and $ 12 million as debt. This Series B round was led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), with participation from Darrin Capital Management and existing investors – Mayfield India, Saama Capital and India Quotient. In May 2017, the firm also announced that it expects a growth of 300% by end of FY18. 
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