India-based online lending platform Lendingkart has raised $30m in a series D round that included Bertelsmann’s India Investments, a corporate venturing vehicle for media group Bertelsmann, TechCrunch has reported.
The corporate was joined by investment firm India Quotient and Fullerton Financial, an asset management subsidiary of Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek.
Founded in 2014, Lendingkart markets short-term loans to small and medium-sized businesses through its online platform, with the financing sourced from its lending affiliates.
The platform scores an applicant’s creditworthiness using big data analytics and machine learning, meaning a decision can be reached within three days.
Lendingkart will use the series D capital to add more clients, having already issued more than 60,000 loans through its Lendingkart Finance subsidiary. Proceeds from the round will also help it extend and refine its range of lending products.
The company’s total equity funding stands at $143m according to media reports. It received $11.5m in debt financing from Alteria Capital two months ago, according to YourStory, after closing an $87m series C equity round led by Fullerton Financial in February 2018.
Bertelsmann India Investments backed the round’s $10.5m initial close the previous September, alongside conglomerate Sistema’s Asia Fund, India Quotient, Mayfield India, Saama Capital and Darrin Capital Management.
Lendingkart had already raised $32m in a 2016 series B round consisting of $20m in equity financing and $12m in debt, with the cash coming from Bertelsmann India Investments, India Quotient, Darrin Capital, Mayfield India and Saama Capital.
The company had collected $10m of series A funding from Saama Capital, Mayfield, Ashvin Chadha and Shailesh Mehta in 2015, after raising an undisclosed amount of seed capital from India Quotient and Ashish Goenka at an undisclosed date.