Branch International, the US-based operator of an online bank for emerging markets, has received $70m in series B debt and equity financing from investors including online lending platform CreditEase’s Fintech Investment Fund.
Venture capital firm Trinity Ventures led the round, which also featured VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, investment firm Victory Park Capital and International Finance Corporation, the private investment arm of the multilateral World Bank.
Founded in 2015, Branch International runs a data technology-equipped online lending platform that has already attracted more than 1 million borrowers across Africa. It will use the funding to enter India and plans to add savings and payment features to its offering.
Matt Flannery, Branch’s co-founder and CEO, who previously headed impact lending platform Kiva, said: “I have been working in microfinance – specifically in Africa – my whole career. Over the past decade, I witnessed the rapid spread of technology in the region.
“Microfinance has been slow to adopt mobile technologies, and customers have not reaped the benefits of quicker access to capital and more efficient pricing. After years of trying to change microfinance institutions from the outside, I decided to start one myself.”
Schwark Satyavolu, a general partner at Trinity Ventures, will join Branch’s board of directors in conjunction with the round while Anju Patwardhan, CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund’s managing director, will take an advisor position.
Branch raised an undisclosed amount of seed capital from VC firms Khosla Ventures and Formation 8, the former through its Khosla Impact Fund, before both returned for an early 2016 series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz.