India-based e-commerce platform KrazyBee has closed an $8m series A round that included electronics manufacturer Xiaomi and E-City Ventures, part of conglomerate Essel Group, YourStory reported today.
Xiaomi co-led the round with venture capital firm Shunwei Capital while VC firm RK Ventures also participated.
Founded in 2015, KrazyBee runs an online platform that lets students without a credit rating purchase products from online retailers and pay for them through instalments. It is now looking to expand into becoming a lending platform for young professionals and offering payday loans.
The cash will be used to improve KrazyBee’s risk model, increase lending and expand its technology and sales teams.
KrazyBee raised $2m in seed funding from micro-loan provider Fenqile and mobile advertising network Yeahmobi in June 2016, and secured $3m in pre-series A funding from Plum Ventures and other existing investors in December.
Shirley Mao, investment director at Xiaomi, told YourStory: “The Indian demography has a large population of urban young adults that spends a lot online and offline.
“For such an enormous ecosystem, the need for urgent personal finance for purchase requirements is highly underserved. An appropriate focus towards tech-based credit evaluation and compliant sourcing of funds can help capture and penetrate this market big time.”