Fintech Platform Rubique Raises Another Round of Funding from Japan's Recruit Group and Russia's Emery Capital

Breaking new grounds in the formal finance sector through innovative and dynamic use of technology, Rubique Technologies PVT LTD, India’s largest online financial matchmaking platform has raised an undisclosed amount funding led by Japan’s Recruit Group and Russian venture capital management company, Emery Capital. The funding round saw participation from Blacksoil & existing investor Kalaari Capital. The funds from this round will enable Rubique to further strengthen its technological and analytics capabilities. The company also aims to expand its credit product offerings to deepen its reach to small enterprises and reach out to underserved micro enterprises.

Established in the year 2014, Rubique has demonstrated how frugal innovation, propelled by disruptive technologies in the traditional lending space, can simplify complex financial procedures to fulfil every financial aspiration in the simplest, shortest and speediest way possible. Since its inception the company has already facilitated loan disbursement worth approximately Rs. 2,670 crores and over 82,000 credit card setups through its platform.

The involvement of Recruit Group and Emery Capital, both having an international expertise in facilitating adoption of newer technologies across sectors and geographies, as well as its existing investors, underlines the trust that Rubique has generated in the global market.

Speaking on the announcement, Manav Jeet, MD & CEO, Rubique said, “The success of the latest funding round is a strong indication of the trust our investors have in our vision, our technology-thinking of financial services as well as in our strong focus on robust unit economics model. We have managed to successfully stand out in the fintech space as an innovator par excellence and one of the genuine success stories of the domain through our unique asset light business model. With the domain expertise our investors bring on-board, we look forward to leveraging their insights as we build a leading platform for digital lending in India. We would also like to thank our existing investors for continuing to support us in our growth journey.”

Rubique claims to have recently closed 200K customers and have generated revenue of around $7.2 Mn (INR 47 Cr), clocking a revenue of around 3.5 Cr month on month. With a consistent growth, Rubique has been unit economics positive at the transactional level and will be aiming to breakeven in 2019 & going for Rs. 100 crores revenue by 2021.

The startup had earlier raised $3 million from Kalaari Capital and Apis Partners, in June last year, which was a bridge round. Prior to that, it has raised $3 million in Series A from YourNest Angel Fund, Kalaari and Globevestor. Rubique has raised over $10 million in funding to date, according to Crunchbase data.

Speaking on the fresh fund raise, Ivan Savelyev from Emery Capital said, “Rubique’s unique business model and technology thinking has an impressive ability to hit the ground running to build a financially strong nation with easy access to credit to all sectors of the society – Businesses and Millennials. We believe that the deployment of technology to develop scalable and accessible financial services platforms, incorporating big data analytics and machine learning, will be critical to any lending business serving the underbanked and underserved customers in India. We are committed to supporting Rubique on its journey to become a leading fintech player in India and also help and share our experience with similar models in other continents & explore synergies to work with them”

With the world constantly innovating, the advanced technologies such as Blockchain, Big Data and AI used by Rubique analyses multiple data points to assess the creditworthiness of the customers and provide them the offers they are eligible for, thereby removing the manual efforts in the loan processing system. The company has recently built a data science team which leverages its rich customer data and bank credit policies to build a proprietary AI based Matchmaking and ranking algorithm that provides a customized list to each consumer based on his/her needs and profile. This offers manifold advantages in terms of higher approval rates, better customer satisfaction and improved sourcing to its financial partners.

Eying the future growth of the company, Rubique envisions becoming the largest online financial matchmaking platform in India and aiming for entire ecosystem growth including customers, financial institutions & influencers. With focus on maintaining its model asset-light, Rubique is planning to invest in Data science & leverage insights generated to build stronger business propositions.

“Apart from this round we are also in the final stages of closing another tranche’ of funding, to be led by couple of marquee investors. We are excited about our next phase of growth and will continue to develop superior technology products for the ecosystem players thereby aiming to bring a symbiotic relationship between banks and technology, bridge India’s credit gap.” Jeet further added.

Founded in 1960, the Recruit Group creates and provides platforms that connect companies and consumers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the Group offers a wide range of services in a variety of areas including human resources, education, housing and real estate, bridal, travel, automobiles, dining and beauty. The Group has more than 45,000 employees and operates in more than 60 countries. Earlier this year, Mumbai-Sunnyvale based CleverTap, a mobile app analytics startup, has raised an undisclosed sum from Recruit Group.

Speaking about Emery Capital, it is an early and growth-stage venture capital firm that backs visionary entrepreneurs around the globe. Our mission is working alongside entrepreneurs to give birth to new technologies and to grow those technologies into amazing, enduring companies.

Fintech Platform Rubique Raises Another Round of Funding from Japan's Recruit Group and Russia's Emery Capital

Breaking new grounds in the formal finance sector through innovative and dynamic use of technology, Rubique Technologies PVT LTD, India’s largest online financial matchmaking platform has raised an undisclosed amount funding led by Japan’s Recruit Group and Russian venture capital management company, Emery Capital. The funding round saw participation from Blacksoil & existing investor Kalaari Capital. The funds from this round will enable Rubique to further strengthen its technological and analytics capabilities. The company also aims to expand its credit product offerings to deepen its reach to small enterprises and reach out to underserved micro enterprises.

Established in the year 2014, Rubique has demonstrated how frugal innovation, propelled by disruptive technologies in the traditional lending space, can simplify complex financial procedures to fulfil every financial aspiration in the simplest, shortest and speediest way possible. Since its inception the company has already facilitated loan disbursement worth approximately Rs. 2,670 crores and over 82,000 credit card setups through its platform.

The involvement of Recruit Group and Emery Capital, both having an international expertise in facilitating adoption of newer technologies across sectors and geographies, as well as its existing investors, underlines the trust that Rubique has generated in the global market.

Speaking on the announcement, Manav Jeet, MD & CEO, Rubique said, “The success of the latest funding round is a strong indication of the trust our investors have in our vision, our technology-thinking of financial services as well as in our strong focus on robust unit economics model. We have managed to successfully stand out in the fintech space as an innovator par excellence and one of the genuine success stories of the domain through our unique asset light business model. With the domain expertise our investors bring on-board, we look forward to leveraging their insights as we build a leading platform for digital lending in India. We would also like to thank our existing investors for continuing to support us in our growth journey.”

Rubique claims to have recently closed 200K customers and have generated revenue of around $7.2 Mn (INR 47 Cr), clocking a revenue of around 3.5 Cr month on month. With a consistent growth, Rubique has been unit economics positive at the transactional level and will be aiming to breakeven in 2019 & going for Rs. 100 crores revenue by 2021.

The startup had earlier raised $3 million from Kalaari Capital and Apis Partners, in June last year, which was a bridge round. Prior to that, it has raised $3 million in Series A from YourNest Angel Fund, Kalaari and Globevestor. Rubique has raised over $10 million in funding to date, according to Crunchbase data.

Speaking on the fresh fund raise, Ivan Savelyev from Emery Capital said, “Rubique’s unique business model and technology thinking has an impressive ability to hit the ground running to build a financially strong nation with easy access to credit to all sectors of the society – Businesses and Millennials. We believe that the deployment of technology to develop scalable and accessible financial services platforms, incorporating big data analytics and machine learning, will be critical to any lending business serving the underbanked and underserved customers in India. We are committed to supporting Rubique on its journey to become a leading fintech player in India and also help and share our experience with similar models in other continents & explore synergies to work with them”

With the world constantly innovating, the advanced technologies such as Blockchain, Big Data and AI used by Rubique analyses multiple data points to assess the creditworthiness of the customers and provide them the offers they are eligible for, thereby removing the manual efforts in the loan processing system. The company has recently built a data science team which leverages its rich customer data and bank credit policies to build a proprietary AI based Matchmaking and ranking algorithm that provides a customized list to each consumer based on his/her needs and profile. This offers manifold advantages in terms of higher approval rates, better customer satisfaction and improved sourcing to its financial partners.

Eying the future growth of the company, Rubique envisions becoming the largest online financial matchmaking platform in India and aiming for entire ecosystem growth including customers, financial institutions & influencers. With focus on maintaining its model asset-light, Rubique is planning to invest in Data science & leverage insights generated to build stronger business propositions.

“Apart from this round we are also in the final stages of closing another tranche’ of funding, to be led by couple of marquee investors. We are excited about our next phase of growth and will continue to develop superior technology products for the ecosystem players thereby aiming to bring a symbiotic relationship between banks and technology, bridge India’s credit gap.” Jeet further added.

Founded in 1960, the Recruit Group creates and provides platforms that connect companies and consumers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the Group offers a wide range of services in a variety of areas including human resources, education, housing and real estate, bridal, travel, automobiles, dining and beauty. The Group has more than 45,000 employees and operates in more than 60 countries. Earlier this year, Mumbai-Sunnyvale based CleverTap, a mobile app analytics startup, has raised an undisclosed sum from Recruit Group.

Speaking about Emery Capital, it is an early and growth-stage venture capital firm that backs visionary entrepreneurs around the globe. Our mission is working alongside entrepreneurs to give birth to new technologies and to grow those technologies into amazing, enduring companies.

Rubique Appoints Vodafone Ex- M-Pesa CEO Suresh Sethi & Alexia Yannopoulos of Apis Partners as Directors

Rubique, the one-stop online marketplace providing technology-enabled end-to-end solutions to financing needs of individuals & SMEs has announced the appointment of two directors- Suresh Sethi, EX-CEO & Managing Director of Vodafone M-Pesa and Alexia Yannopoulos Director at Apis Partners LLP.

Speaking on the appointment, Manav Jeet, MD & CEO, Rubique said, " Suresh’s expertise across global banking, fintech & digital payments & Alexia’s experience in banking and financial services domain will prove valuable to Rubique as we continue our journey of making greater inroads across India with our tech-backed financial products. I am confident that their crucial insights would offer excellent leadership guidance for Rubique as we work towards bringing more efficiency in the entire loan eco-system so that we can establish ourselves as one of the few fintech players changing the landscape of the Indian financial services space”

Commenting on getting on-board with Rubique, Suresh Sethi, Ex- CEO & Managing Director of Vodafone M-Pesa said, “"Our payments and settlement systems rank amongst some of the best across the world. India is poised for a digital disruption, which is the first step towards having a data rich eco system. Models like Rubique are geared to leverage off the same by creating simpler individual and small business experiences to gain access to formal credit. I am glad to be part of this journey and hope to channelize my experience and insights to help Rubique scale up."

Suresh has a broad international experience of over 27 years in the Financial Services industry with Citigroup, YES Bank and Vodafone M-Pesa across India, Kenya, UK, Argentina and US. He has held senior CXO and Managing Director positions at Regional and Global levels across Sales, Product Development, Client Management, Business Strategy and Operations. During this period, Suresh has built extensive contacts within the industry and with the regulator. He has also been recognized by the Asian Banker for his contributions to the financial services industry and is part of The Asian Banker’s - "List of Leading Practitioners". He was also the Co-Chair of the Payments Bank group at the Payments Council of India (PCI).

Alexia has nearly a decade of experience in Financial Services, and she brings an in-depth understanding of financial and operational performance within the industry, having worked on several business transformation programs within the payments and broader financial services industry. Prior to Apis, she was a VP at Anthemis, one of the leading VC investors and corporate advisors in Financial Technology, where she worked on investments and M&A transactions spanning a broad range of Financial Services, FinTech and Financial Infrastructure. Previously she worked at Deutsche Bank in the Financial Institutions team.

"I have been impressed by Rubique’s journey and the market presence it has established for itself in the fintech space. It’s thrilling to now be a part of this unique online marketplace for financial solutions. My immediate goal at Rubique would be to help them with international insights on similar models & help strengthen the company proposition said Alexia Yannopoulos, Director of Apis Partners LLP.

Rubique has been transforming the traditional lending process through technological interventions in an unprecedented fashion ever since its inception in 2014. This has helped a tremendous number of customers in getting the best match for their financial requirements. Here are some of new products of Rubique which are set to bring the innovative change in traditional practices:

Rubique’s unique Online PLUS model enables users to get their loan applications processed faster through PAN verification, Aadhaar based ekyc, Credit bureau integration, banking analysis, enhanced logic in proprietary matchmaking algorithm and addition of new data science methodologies. They can also receive online in-principle approval on various products along with real time status tracking. The fulfillment is handled by Rubique’s tech-enabled business associates.

Rubot - This AI and decision engine powered bot is aimed at easing transaction experience by making use of interactive messaging interface, customized chats basis past interactions in the form of a live chat.

Rubique’s lending gateway provides unified financial interface which allows our partners to complete their application and check exact offers presented through our match making logic. Rubique already has 34 strategy partners across various industries using our lending gateway to provide services such as cards, medical loans, education loans, wedding loans etc. to their customers.

These advanced technology products have enabled the platform to disburse around USD 270 million crore worth of loans, 43000+ credit cards and realized USD 3.8 million revenue till date. Rubique platform has 130+ credit policy algorithms out of 215 products available which has reduced the rejection rates significantly.

Credihealth Partners With Rubique to Make Healthcare More Accessible to Indians

In its quest to make healthcare facilities easily available, Credihealth, India’s leading medical assistance company, has launched a medical loan facility on its platform. It has partnered with leading banks and NBFCs – as well as leading fintech players like Rubique – for this endeavour, and is in talks with other financial services players for the same. Users can now apply for medical loans via Credihealth and make paperless in-principal transactions to avail loans ranging from INR 30,000 to INR 50 lakh, for a tenure starting from 6 months to 48 months.

Credihealth envisions creating a favourable environment where healthcare is more accessible, affordable and actionable for millions of people around the country. To accomplish this goal, it has ensured that those in need get the much-needed financial assistance at a very competitive price. Underlining this proposition is Credihealth’s partnership with Rubique. The tie-up gives it access to Rubique’s advanced technology platform, network of 65+ financial institution tie-ups, and strong distribution across 29 cities. Credihealth expects reaching out to a much larger audience with its unique healthcare proposition through the partnership, and will also benefit from fulfilment support enabled through Rubique’s fulfilment centres. For its future tie-ups as well, it is focussed on teaming up with only those financial services players that are highly transparent and give loans at attractive and fair rates.

Commenting on this partnership, Mr. Ravi Virmani, Founder and MD, Credihealth commented, “In our country, there is an imperative need to not only get quality healthcare but also financial means to get access to these facilities easily and on time. In fact, medical loans is one area which is yet to penetrate the Indian healthcare market as a majority of patients are either paying in cash or doing top-ups to pay their medical bills. But there is a huge section of patients that is in dire need of medical treatment and has no medical funds at all. In order to fulfil this need, Credihealth is making it convenient for patients to pay their medical bills through an EMI model. We are also leveraging our superior network of service providers and procurement supply chain to reduce the overall cost of care in the ecosystem.”

As a one-stop-shop for medical loan sanctions, Credihealth will forward the loan application to all the banks and NBFCs for the necessary approvals as part of this new service. As far as its partnership with the provider goes, an executive will connect with the user immediately. In the next 48 hours, users will get to know the amount of loan he/she is eligible for. The applied loan will get sanctioned within the next 24 hours. This entire process will take only 3-4 days as speedy approvals and disbursals are of the essence in medical emergencies.

Mr. Manav Jeet, MD & CEO, Rubique, added, “Having previously worked at enabling convenient access to finance for SMEs and individuals across multiple categories, we are delighted to partner with Credihealth to provide financial assistance to medical patients. This association will allow us to enable quick and hassle-free medical loans to millions of Indians in need of healthcare services through our state-of-the-art, innovative platform. We are confident that our mutual synergies will help in making quality healthcare more accessible to a larger part of the country’s population.”

One of India’s fastest growing healthcare tech-startups, Credihealth has a panel of over 30,000 specialist doctors, and has served more than 1.8 lakh patients across 10 cities including Gurgaon, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. For its medical loan facility, it caters to every class of people, be it salaried, self-employed, or retired.

Image : Ravi Virmani, Founder and MD, Credihealth 

Fintech Startup Rubique Secures $3 Mn In A Bridge Round Of Funding

In yet another game-changing round of finance, Rubique, the fintech company empowering individuals and SMEs by providing easy and smooth access to finance and financial products has raised a bridge round of funding of $3 million. The money has been invested by existing investor Kalaari Capital and Udayan Goyal, managing partner at Apis Partners, a financial services-oriented private equity firm focused on Africa and South Asia.

The recent bridge round of funding came after the company's announcement mid last year that it intends to raise $10-15 million in a Series-B round. The company had raised $3 million in Series A from Kalaari Capital, YourNest Angel Fund, Globevestor and Dexter Angel Circle in April last year.

Commenting on making the fund raising a discreet affair, Manavjeet Singh, CEO, Rubique said, “We delayed our Series B round since the company was already generating revenue worth Rs 2 crore a month for the last six months without spending any money on marketing. In fact we didn't need money for survival. However, we decided to go with the new round of funds as there was immense inbound interest. We’ll be leveraging these funds to make even greater inroads across India, strengthen technology product with rich data science methodologies like AI-MLP and explore new product territories in Insurance & Mutual Funds”

Based out of India's financial capital Mumbai, Rubique was incorporated by Manavjeet Singh along with his partner Sandeep Nambiar on October 2014, to bring every borrower and lender on a common platform. The duo introduced a tech-led lending solution which is unique in terms of its matchmaking algorithm and direct integration with financial institutions’ lending underwriting systems. Rubique’s marketplace platform has been integrated with financial institutions’ systems for real time processing and for providing online approvals to the customer. The advance technology solution not only reduces the processing time significantly but the data analytics done on hundreds of data points helps to bring predictability & assess creditworthiness offering best deal to their customer.

With this technology solution, the model is focused on disbursement rather than mere lead generation allowing the customer to get the best deal in the quickest possible time while lowering the cost for customer acquisition for the financial institutions. With a unique technology-driven model, it aims to tap all customer segments be it the digital savvy or the traditional Indian customer.

Rubique has been truly metamorphosing the traditional lending process through technological interventions in an unprecedented fashion. It has just localised its Rubique Associate app. The interactive app now live in Hindi, Marathi and Bengali language will now enable more number of potential business associates to register with Rubique and earn a commission for every reference search for Loans or Credit Cards. The interface for all the three language apps is an exact replica of the English version, making all the user-friendly features available to speakers of Hindi, Marathi and Bengali.

Its recently launched Rubique Advantage feature, new lending solution TAB and the freshly added insurance products to its portfolio has enabled the platform to disburse more than Rs 1,500 crore worth of loans across 27 cities till date. Of this, Rs 250 crore was disbursed in the last two months alone. Rubique is now looking to expand its team of data scientists as well.

Fintech Startup Rubique Makes It To Abu Dhabi Global Market’s Fintech Regulatory Laboratory

Fintech startup, Rubique has been selected by Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the International Financial Centre in Abu Dhabi, to be a part of the first batch of its fintech Regulatory Laboratory (RegLab) programme. Comprising 5 successful local and international fintech startups with various innovation offerings, Rubique is one of the only two Indian fintech companies selected among the 11 applications. The platform will now develop and test its fintech innovations further as part of the programme.

The ADGM RegLab is the fintech regulatory sandbox and framework in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It is a tailored regulatory regime for fintech participants designed to foster innovation within the UAE financial services market for both new market entrants and existing financial institutions.

Commenting on the recent development, Wai Lum Kwok, Executive Director of Capital Markets of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, ADGM said, “As an International Financial Centre, it is important that we value and embrace innovations that support the development and growth of our financial markets. What better way than to get up close to guide the RegLab firms through the develop-test-and-implement journey and assist them in better understanding the regulatory environment to realise their innovations."

The newly announced members are offering a range of innovations from data analytics for credit risk assessments, robo-advisory, artificial intelligence in digital ID, to solutions that can promote financial inclusion among the unbanked, and digital services that enhance operational risk management. As a member, Rubique along with all its fellow participants will receive regulatory guidance from a dedicated ADGM fintech team, and support from ADGM fintech ecosystem partners.

“It is a moment of pride for Rubique to be selected for such a prestigious programme and share the platform with some of the top fintech platforms of UAE, the USA and another one from India. We will leverage this opportunity to further enhance our innovation by elevating the wave of technology and putting India’s fintech segment on the global map. Our aims are to share and enhance our advanced and ground-breaking technology in transforming the global fintech ecosystem,” said Manavjeet Singh, CEO and Founder, Rubique.

Rubique has rapidly established itself as the fintech player in India, disrupting the landscape of financial products driven by its innovative and robust tech infrastructure. Through its various technological applications such as the Rubique Advantage feature, it enables users to quickly process loans through tools such as e-KYC. It expedites the process of in-principle approval of credit card applications and also ensures a hassle-free lending process.

FinTech Startup Rubique Achieves 400% Growth, Aims to Disburse Loans Over Rs 2000 Cr by March 2018

With technology as a key enabler to make finance simpler and minimize the gaps in the lending sector, Rubique has witnessed over 400% of growth in business with the same number of team members. The leading fintech company empowering individuals & SMEs by providing easy & smooth access to finance has facilitated disbursement of loans worth over INR 1250 crore & 31,000+ credit card setups. It aims to disburse loans over INR 2000 crore & setup 52,000+ credit cards by 2018.

These phenomenal numbers were made possible only because of Rubique’s constant endeavor to deploy technology in traditional practices. While achieving this growth, Rubique has maintained its proposition of being neutral and was able to do business successfully with its 51 financial institution partners out of 65+ tie-ups it currently has. Rubique’s financial institution network is spread across leading banks like HDFC, ICICI, Axis as well as NBFCs like Aditya Birla Housing Finance, PNB, Indiabulls and Reliance Commercial Finance etc.

Rubique has generated INR 17.5 crores of revenue which equals its Series A funding. On this occasion of this achievement Manavjeet Singh, Founder and CEO of Rubique said, "We are proud to be able to process more than 1,10,000 applications so far. We are considering it as a fantastic response to our products with 400% percent Y-O-Y growth. And maintaining our SME focus, we are happy to share that 65% of our business has been facilitated to the SME segment. Our focus on technology interventions has helped us to maintain our neutral position by distributing loans to almost all financial institution in our network, out of which with 50+ we have successfully done business. Our focus on introducing paperless-focused features and real-time tracking through technology has significantly reduced the loan approval as well as processing time. We are constantly innovating on our approach and aim to disburse loans over INR 2000 crore & setup 52,000+ credit cards by 2018.”

Rubique was established to plug the huge gap between banks’ requirements and customer needs whether it was retail lending or MSME finance. To overcome the challenges faced by banks and the pain that customers go through, the platform uses advanced technologies to analyze hundreds of data points for assessing the creditworthiness of customers and provides them the offers they are eligible for, thereby removing the manual efforts in the loan processing system. It is such unique technology propositions that have enabled Rubique to cross the mark of INR 1250 crore+ in disbursement. The newly launched feature called ‘Rubique Advantage’ enabling the users in getting their loan applications processed faster through e-KYC, has further helped the platform to steer closer to the digital savvy customers and increase their chances of getting loans.

Currently operational in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Jaipur, Rubique is not only witnessing a growing interest from financial institutions to adopt its technology vision, but is also getting tremendous recognition on international platforms. The fintech marketplace was one of the 40 finalists across the globe in the Singapore fintech festival held on November 2016 and was also among the 120+ fintech companies across 40+ countries selected for Paris Fintech Forum held on 23rd & 24th January 2017.

Finance Woes of Indian MSMEs to Ease as NSIC - Rubique Join Hands

Rubique, the one-stop online marketplace providing technology enabled end-to-end solution to financing needs of MSMEs, has signed an agreement with National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC), a Mini Ratna Enterprise of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India, that renders integrated support to MSMEs. The MOU between Rubique & NSIC was signed during the inauguration ceremony of NSIC’s Finance Facilitation Center at Bangalore held in Peenya Industrial Association Centre.

Rubique and NSIC will create an interface which will ease credit facilitation for MSMEs by allowing quicker decision making and evaluation.

NSIC has been providing integrated support to MSMEs catering their diverse needs in areas of Marketing, Credit, Technology and other Support Services. In its endeavors of facilitating MSMEs, NSIC synergizes with various players in the sector and for facilitating credit it has tie-up arrangements with 33 public and private sector banks and FIs. NSIC team is relentlessly working towards facilitating MSME segment meet their credit requirements and now this tie-up between NSIC - Rubique will bring in the technology interface by way of the online platform, to strengthen NSIC’s endeavor.

Rubique, which provides an end-to-end loan fulfillment through its 60+ tie-ups with financial institutions, envisages to fulfill larger segment of SMEs by joining hands with NSIC and adding its 33+ banks and financial institutions to offer wide array of loan products to SMEs. Additionally, Rubique’s matchmaking algorithm would bring more certainty in the process by doing first level qualification check of the application by matching borrower’s eligibility with financial institutions’ lending criteria on the website itself.

The details entered on the website will be transmitted to NSIC to enable real-time tracking of the cases across all their branches pan India and allow faster decision making at financiers’ end. Thus making the entire process faster & smooth for all stakeholders involved. The website will be launched soon.

The NSIC members as well as new MSMEs to NSIC can apply through this co-branded website their funding requirements.

Commenting on this partnership, Manavjeet Singh, founder and CEO of Rubique said, "Small firms in the country have always had a tough time in raising finance for their business activities. They run from pillar to post to get their working capital or any urgent funding requirements fulfilled. A majority of times they are either clueless of which bank to approach or are simply denied finance as they fail to meet the criteria of the financial institutions. The rejection rates are quite high in this space. With the association with NSIC, we will be able to reach out to larger base of MSMEs & provide them the technology solution to find a right deal for their financing requirement. This would be a moment where startup India would help flourish skill in India with help of Digital India initiative.”

At present, Rubique is providing its services in the cities of Mumbai, Pune, Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad and will eventually spread out its geographical boundaries in other cities as well. Apart from business expansion, Rubique is also emphasizing on promoting the government's ground-breaking campaigns like Digital India through this consolidated online platform to provide a seamless experience in online credit facilitation to MSMEs. As an ardent supporter of ‘Startup India, Standup India', Rubique is one of the very few startups in the country encouraging Skill India by providing training to empower influencers in the ecosystem to become financial entrepreneurs under its Business Associate Program and increase their earning capability.

NSIC is constantly working towards improving processes in line with Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of Digital India, and same has been appreciated across ministry as well. Sh. Nilesh Mitash, Principal Secretary to Government of Karnataka (MSMEs & Mines) who was present during inauguration ceremony stated that NSIC’s initiative of online Finance Facilitation Centre is another thoughtful innovative service which will enhance the competence of MSMEs.

On partnership with Rubique, Mr. Ravindra Nath, Chairman & Managing director – NSIC said, “Finance has always been a major issue for the MSMEs, thus making finance facilitation a crucial subject of intervention for NSIC. This tie-up with Rubique will be another of an on-line initiative of NSIC and would facilitate MSMEs with easy access to finance while saving ample amount of time and without any additional cost. It would help us improve their competitiveness of MSMEs in the country.”

Building synergies with Rubique and offering its technology platform to MSMEs will also help NSIC align its efforts to promote Digital India initiative. After Bangalore Online Finance Facilitation Centre, NSIC soon will be opening similar centers at Ludhiana, Guwahati, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Delhi.

SpiderG Raises Seed Funding; Indiabulls to Raise Up to $150M; Swiggy To Raise $12M & More

E-Invoicing Startup SpiderG Raises Seed Round of Funding

Pune-based Gladiris Technologies that owns and operates its free e-invoicing app SpiderG, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from a group of investors.

Rahul Kirloskar, chairman at Kirloskar Pneumatic; Fusion Tech Ventures, the investment arm of Praj’s Pramod Chaudhary; Adi Saravanan, president of Allsec Securities; Pravin Dongre, CEO at Glencore Grain India and Mahendra Doshi of LPK Securities participated in this round of funding.

Gladiris Technology was founded in 2013 by Ashwani Rathore, Prakash Nair and Harshal Ingale, currently serves around 350 businesses and plans to scale the count up to 20,000 in a year. SpiderG also plans to take its revenue from INR 1.5 Cr to INR 22 Cr by the end of this year.

Indiabulls to Raise Up to $150M

Indiabulls Alternative Investments Ltd plans to raise up to $150 million for a new fund from non-resident Indian (NRI) investors based in West Asia, Asia-Pacific and Europe. India Opportunities Fund, a real estate-focused, alternative investment fund (AIF), allows NRI investors, along with persons of Indian origin (PIOs) and other foreign investors, to participate in domestic real estate investments. It plans to initially raise Rs.500 crore and raise an additional Rs.500 crore in case of higher-than-expected demand. The fund has a tenure of four years, extendable by a year, as per DealStreetAsia report.

Bessemer Ventures May Invest $12M in Swiggy

US-based venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners is in advanced talks to invest around $12 million in food-delivery company Swiggy, as per ET report. If the deal goes through, it will value the company at around $200 million. Last month, it was reported that Swiggy has raised an additional $7 million from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, DST Global and Accel Partners, valuing the company at $130 million. In January, the Bangalore-based company had raised $30 million in Series C round of funding from New York-based Harmony Partners and Singapore-based RB investments. The raised funding will help Swiggy compete strongly with restaurant listing company Zomato, which entered the food delivery business last year, as well as the Sequoia Capital-backed Roadrunnr-TinyOwl combine and Rocket Internet portfolio company Foodpanda.

Rubique to Raise Up to $15M

Online loan facilitator Rubique is in the process of raising $10-15 million in the second round of funding and aims to close with about $25 million by the end of 2016. The Mumbai-based company plans to use the amount to strengthen its technology backbone and focus on distribution and promotion to reach out to a larger base of customers, as per ET reported.

It plans to expand to Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Chandigarh, after having established its presence in Mum bai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.

The company, which counts Kalaari Capital, along with YourNest Angel Fund, Globvestor and Dexter Angel Circle as its investors, had received $3 million in its first round of funding last year.

Cyclops Medtech Raises Seed Round

Cyclops Medtech has raised an undisclosed seed round of funding from CP Bothra, Chairman and Managing Director of Medreich Pharma, a generic drug manufacturing major which was recently acquired by Japan’s Meiji Seika. The team had earlier raised a pre-seed round of funding for basic prototype development from a leading surgeon in Benglauru.

The startup was founded by a team of doctors and a serial entrepreneur — DR Srinivas, Ravi Nayar, and Niranjan Subbarao. The startup focuses on building and manufacturing diagnostic solutions for episodic neurological events like vertigo with the use of eye-tracking technology.

With the newly raised funding, the team is now set to build and manufacture the product. The team has already tied up with a manufacturing facility Vinayas, based out of Mysore.

Infibeam to Invest $9M in Payment Gateway Firm CCAvenue

Infibeam has signed an agreement with payment gateway firm CCAvenue to invest up to Rs 60 crore ($8.9 million) in the company. Last month, Infibeam announced to back the company with Rs 45 crore ($6.7 million) through its wholly-owned subsidiary NSI Infinium Global Pvt Ltd. Following that, the company has announced today that it has increased the investment size now as earlier it was an intimation amount.

The company was founded in 2010 by Vishal Mehta, a former Amazon executive, Infibeam offers cloud-based e-commerce platform service in B2C and B2B verticals.

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Rubique Appoints Corporate Banking and Retail Financing Honcho Aditya Narula as Channel Acquisition Head

Rubique (Bestdealfinance.com), the one-stop online marketplace providing technology-enabled end-to-end solutions to financing needs of individuals & SMEs has brought on board corporate banking, finance, and insurance veteran, Aditya Narula as its Channel Acquisition Head. Driven by the thriving scene of India's fintech startups, Aditya is the latest corporate executive to join the bandwagon and take up a challenging role. In his new capacity, he will helm the expansion of Rubique's channel acquisition and activation network.

Speaking on the appointment, Manavjeet Singh, Founder, and CEO, Rubique said, "Aditya brings with himself, an extensive experience in the retail finance, corporate banking, and insurance domain. We are thrilled to bring him on board at such an exciting period of Rubique's growth. Leveraging his skills in new business development, relationship management, distribution setups and intrinsic knowledge of turning risk volatility into opportunity, Rubique will be exploring possible channels of customer acquisition & creating strategy to expand across locations for better customer reach. "

An MBA graduate in finance from IMT Ghaziabad, Aditya holds over 14 years of work experience in a career spanning retail finance, corporate banking, insurance and now fintech. Prior to Rubique, Aditya was the head of Bancassurance & Affinity Partners at TATA AIG GIC Ltd. He has played key leadership roles in numerous financial institutions like Standard Chartered Bank, ICICI Lombard GIC, Tata Motors Ltd and HDFC Bank in the past, primarily managing their business finance requirements, bancassurance channels, and stakeholders' interests. Riding high on his key strengths of Strategic, Finance & Marketing Planning, Business Strategy development, Sales & Operations Management and cross-functional capabilities, Aditya has valuable growth plans for Rubique.

"I am thrilled to be a part of this distinctive online marketplace for financial solutions, which stands apart for its perfect blend of online and assisted online model focused on disbursement rather than mere lead generation. My immediate goal at Rubique would be to leverage  my past experience to explore & create a robust distribution for customer acqusition. I look forward to an exciting & enriched learning assignment at Rubique ," said Aditya.

Currently operational in the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad with 27,000+ applications generated so far, Rubique - the fintech disruptor has processed loans worth over 310 crore & 8,000+ credit card setups since inception and is looking forward to win over more financial institutions in the country, keeping the key element of ‘convenience' at its core.

Aditya's entry in the organization highlights Rubique's efforts to strengthen its team with experienced industry professionals.