India-based online financial technology developer Innoviti has raised $18m in a funding round led by SBI-FMO Fund, a fund formed by financial services firm SBI Group and Dutch development bank FMO.
Venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners and investment firm Catamaran Ventures also took part in the round.
Innoviti operates two distinct products: UniPay Next, a cashless payment processing system used by more than 100 merchants such as Walmart; and a platform called SMELending.com that allows kirana stores – independent local retailers – to apply for loans.
The company plans to use the capital to increase the number of merchants that accept payments through UniPay Next, and to rapidly expand SMELending to more kirana stores. Innoviti also hopes to enter the business-to-business sector with SMELending.
Tata Capital, the corporate venturing arm of conglomerate Tata and Sons, supplied $660,000 of a $1.65m round for Innoviti that included various angel investors in 2014.
Catamaran Ventures and New India Investment Corporation, a subsidiary of capital market company Gravitas Financial, then injected another $5m in 2015.