FinTech Startup BharatX Raises $4.5 Mn From YC and Others in Seed Round to Enable Embedded Credit

(L-R) Eeshan Sharma- COO & Co-founder, Mehul Nath Jindal- CEO & Co-founder, Shyam Murugan- CTO & Co-founder

• Round saw participation from Y Combinator, 8i Ventures, and other marquee VCs and angel investors along with existing investors, Java Capital.
• BharatX is a fintech startup that enables consumer-facing apps to offer Credit-as-a-Feature in a white-labeled manner.
• Funds raised will be used for team expansion, product development and market expansion
• Founders of Razorpay, Dropbox, Dunzo, and other angels also took part in the round.

BharatX, a Y-Combinator backed company, has raised $4.5 million in a seed round from Y Combinator, 8i Ventures, Multiply Ventures, Soma Capital and other investors to enable embedded credit in the Indian market. Existing investor Java Capital also participated in the round. The round also saw participation from many marquee Angels including -

• Arash Ferdowsi, Co-founder, Dropbox
• Harshil Mathur, CEO & Co-Founder, Razorpay
• Shashank Kumar, Founder, Razorpay
• Varun Alagh, Co-founder & CEO, Mamaearth
• Kunal Shah, Founder and CEO, CRED
• Ankur Aggarwal, Co-founder, Dunzo
• Vikas Choudhury, President, Reliance Jio

BharatX, a consumer credit venture, provides embedded credit by partnering with brands and websites to provide a credit feature in their apps to serve customers. It operates White-labeled Buy Now Pay Later and other Credit products on more than 50 consumer-facing platforms via it’s APIs and SDK. It aims to deliver seamless embedded credit experiences on several consumer-facing platforms across India, with zero credit risk and zero operational hurdles for the Brands it partners with.

Mehul Jindal, Co-founder & CEO, BharatX, says, “Consumers of India deserve a better class of Credit products out there. Today, if you look at the landscape, most players have low Credit Eligibility approval rates, long documentation sign-up processes and unethical collection practices. We want to give the Middle Class of India easy access to credit products that they deserve yet are not able to access today, while setting the bar for world-class UX and customer service while doing so. ”

“Our B2B2C business model enables us to not only win trust of users via the Brand power of players we work with, but also enable us to reach to Millions of users at Scale with almost Zero Cost.. And with this new round of support from our investors, we’re looking to scale up faster & more aggressively in the near future,” he adds.

The funds raised will be used to build & expand the team, enhance & develop the product further and for market expansion. Powered with a “credit approval rate” of 45 – 55%, which is 3-4X the market standard, BharatX aims to increase the credit stack on offer by launching new product verticals such as UPI Credit, Pay in 3 and 15/30 day cycle products like Credit Cards.

Vikram Chachra, Founding Partner, 8i Ventures, says “We committed to invest in the seed round of BharatX within our first meeting with the founders. It's rare to find this combination of clarity of vision and flawless execution at such an early stage of a venture. Mehul and his co-founders are carving out a whole new white label BNPL category for India's brands. We are delighted to partner with them as they pursue their audacious vision of building India's largest BNPL platform.”

Arash Ferdowsi, Co-founder, Dropbox, adds, “I’ve been very impressed by Mehul and the BharatX team. They have a clear vision for the future of e-commerce in India and the talent to make it a reality. In a short time, they’ve made the “buy now, pay later” experience seamless and instantaneous for both brands and consumers. I can’t wait to see what they build next.”

The most popular embedded credit journey by BharatX is the “Pay in 3” plan for High Ticket transactions on E-Commerce players,, which allows the customer to split their purchases into three interest-free installments with one of the highest approval rates in the market.

Founded in 2019, BharatX has been working with 50+ brands in India including the largest D2C brands in India, growing more than 10X in the last 4 months in volume. The founders include Mehul Nath Jindal, Eeshan Sharma, and Shyam Murugan who are also final year students of National Institute of Technology (NIT) Trichy.

Currently, nearly 480 million Indians don’t get access to credit due to lack of documentation, high-interest rates, and inadequate supply of credit in the informal sector. There is a $1Tn credit gap in the Indian middle class wherein less than 3% of India has credit cards for making purchases using Credit.

BharatX is a FinTech startup led by Mehul Nath Jindal, Eeshan Sharma, and Shyam Murugan, who are also currently students of National Institute of Technology (NIT) Trichy in their Final Year of Education. They were also a part of the latest Forbes 30 under 30 list. It enables Embedded Credit on Consumer Facing platforms such as White-labeled BNPL with zero risks to the platforms and easy integration within a few hours. Further, it does not require a lot of documentation from target users, and has a high approval rate for people applying for credit.

Fintech Startup BharatX Raises Pre-seed Round of $ 250K Led by Java Capital

L-R Eeshan Sharma- COO & Co-founder, Mehul Nath Jindal- CEO & Co-founder, Shyam Murugan- CTO & Co-founder, Siddharth Venu- Co-founder

BharatX, a FinTech Startup that enables Consumer facing platforms to offer Credit-as-a-Feature, has raised US$ 250,000 (INR 1.81 crores) in a Pre-Seed round from marquee angel investors and other industry veterans to boost Embedded Credit in the Indian market.

The round was participated by many Marquee Angels and Industry Veterans including:

• Java Capital (Lead investor),
• Anupam Mittal, Founder Shaadi.com / People Group,
• Ritesh Jain, Ex Chief Operating Officer of HSBC,
• Faiz Mayalakkara, Director of Investments at UAE’s Sovereign Wealth fund,
• Amit Kumar Singh, ex-CBO, Indialends.com and
• LetsVenture AIF

The funding will help drive BharatX’s strategy to deliver seamless Embedded Credit experiences on many consumer facing platforms across India, with zero credit risk and zero operational headaches for the platforms. Customers of the platforms will enjoy a white-label seamless experience with no separate app download required.

Currently, nearly 480 million Indians don’t get access to credit due to lack of documentation, high interest rates and inadequate supply of credit in the informal sector. BharatX aims to bridge this gap with credit products enabled on apps that those users already use.

Mehul Jindal, founder of BharatX, says, “Over the last decade, startups have brought the Bank to our mobile phones, but they haven’t brought what even the Banks couldn’t deliver - Access to Credit. Our goal with BharatX is to enable easy and cheap access to Credit to Every Middle Class Indian who deserves it with a Zero Document Flow. Embedded Credit, allows us to acquire users at much lower costs while also creating value for the Platform we partner with, be it through journeys like Khata, Try & Buy, Pay Later, Credit Line, etc.”

He adds, “We are proud to say that, we do not bias against factors like gender, age, etc and our approval rates are multiples higher than the industry benchmarks, as our focus is on access to credit. We are excited and very grateful to our investors for putting their belief in us to solve this problem which has plagued Indians for far too long. We hope to bring some exciting and disruptive tech to the market soon.”

The most popular embedded credit journey by BharatX is the “Khata” plan for daily essentials sellers, which allows people to buy groceries and household essentials, and pay next month, similar to the offline Khata that many Kirana’s offer offline to their customers. It also has a “Pay-in-3” option, which allows the customer to split their purchases into three interest-free instalments with one of the highest approval rates in the market.

BharatX’s “Try-and-Buy” feature, is best suited for social commerce platforms and apparel & fashion websites; it allows customers to try out a garment and pay upto 5-10 days after delivery, solving customer concerns regarding returns and refund policy.

BharatX also offers pay later for food delivery and payment apps, and postpaid features for ride-hailing apps. Its “Design-Your-Own-Credit” feature also allows merchants the freedom to develop their own payment method, with technology powered by BharatX.

Karteek Pulapaka, Partner, Java Capital, says, “We are thrilled to partner with BharatX and back the exceptional founding team led by Mehul Jindal. BharatX offers plug-and-play credit products through an ultralight SDK that can be integrated by brands, e-commerce stores, merchants and their own mobile apps. The next wave of growth in India will come from its deepening internet penetration and increased data usage. However, much of this growth depends on how easily customers can access credit, and if it is affordable. BharatX can revolutionise how this wave of internet shoppers avail formal credit. We are happy to be part of this mission."

About BharatX

BharatX is a FinTech startup led by Mehul Nath Jindal, Eeshan Sharma, Shyam Murugan and Siddharth Venu, who are also currently students of National Institute of Technology (NIT) Trichy in their Final Year of Education. It was also a part of the Lightspeed Extreme Entrepreneurs Cohort of 2021. It enables Embedded Credit on Consumer Facing platforms with zero risks to the platforms and easy integration within a few hours. Further, it does not require a lot of documentation from target users, and has a high approval rate for people applying for credit.

Fintech Platform BharatPe Opens Its Research Lab 'BharatX'; Launches Internship Program with 1 Lac/Mth Stipend

B2B payments Firm. BharatPe, that is making 'UPI' Payment as universally​ accepted payment method at offline merchants, has launched BharatX -- its research lab, to promote the development and experimenting of radical ideas to solve the next set of merchant and business challenges with innovative product solutions.

With the research lab, BharatPe wants to ensure financial inclusion of over 60 million small and medium merchants in India.

Bharat X will focus on cutting-edge research across the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Data Science, Financial Services, Modeling and several other areas.

Besides this, the fintech firm has also launched an internship program for the students who have graduated in year 2020 from the 14 selected U.S. Universities and have been adversely impacted by the COVID lockdown or work visa related changes introduced by the government of the US.

The internship, which has duration from 3 to 6 months, has stipend of INR 100,000 per month. Stpident will be paid to anyone who is eligible to work in India. Though, currently only Indian citizens can work without any work visa in India.

BharatPe Internship is open in fields including AI/ML, Augmented Reality, Human Computer Interaction, Credit Risk Modeling, Financial Services, Marketing, Strategy etc.