Bankbazaar, a leading marketplace for financial products, has raised INR 29 crore in a latest funding round that was spearheaded by Amazon and other investors, according to a report published in Entrackr.
According to this report, Amazon contributed Rs 5.68 crore and Sequoia invested nearly Rs 2.6 crore in the round. Netherland based GUS Holdings also reportedly infused Rs 2.3 Crore while promoters Adhil Shetty and Arjun Shetty likewise pumped Rs 2.6 crore and Rs 3.2 crore respectively in the funding round. Other participants in the round included Navaneetha Krishnan, Sriram V, Murari Sridharan and Iype Isac.
This is apparently the first tranche of what is supposed to be the D1 round for the company. The Chennai headquartered company is expected to raise more funds in the near future as part of this round.
Founded more than a decade ago, Bankbazaar has grown comparatively slowly since its inception. This holds especially true if its growth is compared with its erstwhile competitor Policybazaar. Today Policybazaar boosts an eye-popping valuation and is counted amongst the proud unicorn startups of India.
However, today Bankbazaar is evidently trying to make up for the tepid growth over the years. As per its latest future earnings, the company is expected to hit profitability in the current financial year. But this looks like a rather tall order especially if the company’s less than flattering financial performance in the last financial year is taken into consideration.
In FY19, the company posted a net loss of Rs 169.2 crore while negative operating cash flow of Rs 133.28 crore made its balance sheet appear little weak.
Nonetheless, the latest funding round – though still not confirmed – will offer a much needed funding muscle to BankBazaar at a critical time when the financial sector is going through crisis due to the COVID 19 lockdown and the recent YES Bank crises.