CredAvenue debt marketplace, which helps companies and businesses raise 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 funding round led by Insight Partners, B Capital Group and Dragoneer, he said. The round values CredAvenue, founded by Vivriti Capital co-founder Gaurav Kumar, at $1.3 billion, up from about $410 million last September, he said.
The startup, whose sponsors include Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed Venture Partners, TVS Capital, Lightrock, Vivriti Capital and Indian fintech CRED, has raised over $227 million to date.
Companies face many challenges, including lack of transparency in interest rates and market valuation when they need to raise debt.
“This is my fourth startup and I have spent over 16 years in the lending industry,” Kumar told TechCrunch. “There is no deepening in the debt market.”
CredAvenue has created what it says is the most comprehensive set of technologies in India to meet the full debt cycle of a business from repayment to collection.
It operates platforms to provide term loans and working capital solutions for businesses, a creation platform for banks and non-banking financial institutions to partner for co-lending, and a bond platform to assist institutional and retail participants in issuing bonds. In addition, it also offers trade finance, pass-through securitization, and portfolio buyouts.
“If you are a business and prefer direct financing, you can look to our portfolio of loans, bond packages and ABS packages. If you have indirect funding needs, you can set yourself up on a co-finishing platform and bring in your retail clients. Our clients are any enterprises with revenues of more than $1.3 million,” he said.
“As soon as a partner, be it a bank on the lender’s side or a borrower, integrates with us into our operating system, you get access to all users of our network. Interoperability is at the heart of our offering. We are paving the way for the Indian debt market to reach its full potential and we plan to soon become a leading player in the global debt markets with our unique and diversified product suites.”
She recently acquired a start-up collector called Spocto, which operates in three markets. But overall, the startup plans to continue focusing on India, Kumar said. “We barely scratched the surface.”
CredAvenue has provided more than $10.5 billion in loans to date, Kumar said. More than 2,300 corporations, 450 businesses and 750 lenders operate on the platform, he said. The startup plans to use fresh funds to expand its business in India and is also looking for companies to inorganically stimulate its growth.
“We are delighted with CredAvenue’s value proposition of bringing investors and borrowers together in a one-stop-shop ecosystem for discovering, facilitating and tracking debt products. I have been privileged to know Gaurav for several years and it is my pleasure to support a strong team that is digitizing the Indian debt markets. Debt in India is still undervalued as a percentage of GDP at ~60%. This creates a huge opportunity for a leading player like CredAvenue,” Kabir Narang, founding general partner of B Capital Group, said in a statement.
“The $1.9 trillion Indian debt market is still underserved. CredAvenue helps automate and improve efficiency across the entire value chain. This is reflected in strong retention among borrowers and repeat business with investors. We like their technical approach to solving this problem. Beyond the business, what is even more exciting is the mission and the impact they have by providing access to debt to unlock human potential.”