Ahmedabad based SME lending platform Lendingkart Finance has raised $3.8 million in debt from State Bank of India (SBI). This loan of $3.8 million (Rs 25 crore) is in the form of credit facility. This means that company can extract the amount over separate channels whenever the need arises.
In 2017, two private sector banks, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd and Yes Bank Ltd provided financing to Lendingkart as lenders. However, it is the first investment for State Bank of India in relation to a digital lending startup. SBI is one of the largest banks which has played a major role in regulating India’s financial prospect. This move will further allow SBI to reach more borrowers by backing technology-enabled lending startups.
Also, with the newly acquired financing, Lendingkart will grow their loan books and expand their reach to more number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by using technology and non-traditional data sources for credit appraisal. Lendingkart’s finance raises money from various sources from time to time and lends them to SMEs which can be used by them as a working capital for fulfilling business needs.
Post this funding, the total amount raised by the company has grown to around $59 million, most of which came from non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) such as Aditya Birla Financial Services, IFMR Capital and Mannapuram Finance. Since most of the NBFCs borrow money from banks, it is not possible for them to lend below a certain rate. So the company is gradually moving towards banks for fulfilling its capital requirements.
Lendingkart, which was founded in 2014 by Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan, lends money to small and medium enterprises from its own books. Currently, Lendingkart provides collateral-free working capital loans ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh to small business. It is active in over 850 cities across the country and has disbursed more than 15,500 loans.
Lendingkart has even acquired over $30 million in equity from Bertelsmann India Investment, Saama Capital, Mayfield India, India Quotient and Darrin Capital Management.