Indian fintech CredAvenue unicorn
Debt marketplace CredAvenue, which helps businesses and enterprises secure debt from lenders, has become the fastest Indian fintech startup to join the unicorn club, it said on Sunday.
The two-year-old startup has raised a $137 million Series B financing round led by Insight Partners, B Capital Group, and Dragoneer, it said. The round values CredAvenue, which was founded by Vivriti Capital co-founder Gaurav Kumar, at $1.3 billion, up from about $410 million in September last year, it said.
The startup, which counts Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed Venture Partners, TVS Capital, Lightrock, Vivriti Capital, and Indian fintech CRED among its backers, has raised over $227 million to date.
Businesses face scores of challenges — including opacity about interest rates and market evaluation — when they need to raise debt.
CredAvenue has built what it says is India’s most comprehensive technology stack to meet businesses’ complete debt cycle from disbursal to collections.
It operates platforms for giving term loans and working capital solutions to enterprises, an origination platform for banks and non-banking financial institutions to partner for co-lending, and a bond platform for helping institutional and retail participants with bond issuance. Additionally, it also offers trade financing and end-to-end securitization, and portfolio buyouts.
“If you’re an enterprise and prefer direct finance, you can come to our loan stack, bond stack and ABS stack. If you have an indirect financing needs, you can set yourself on the co-ending platform and bring your retail customers. Our customers are any enterprise with revenue of more than $1.3 million,”
Vivriti Capital co-founder Gaurav Kumar
CredAvenue has facilitated loans of over $10.5 billion to date, Kumar said. Over 2,300 corporates, 450 enterprises, and 750 lenders are active on the platform, he said. The startup plans to deploy the fresh funds to expand its business in India and is also looking to acquire companies to inorganically fuel its growth.
Indian fintech CredAvenue unicorn