Lendingkart Finance borrows Debt Funds worth Rs.67 Crore

Lendingkart Finance has raised $10 million (Rs.67 crore) debt fund from Kotak Mahindra Bank, Aditya Birla Financial Services and other financial institutions.

As the company expands its reach to over 700 cities across the country, these funds will come in handy to restock the loan book, allowing them to widen its scope to SMEs countrywide.

Speaking on the latest development, Harshvardhan Lunia, CEO and Co-Founder, Lendingkart Technologies, said, “For Lendingkart Finance, the influx of capital at strategic intervals is the key driver to promote financial inclusivity amongst SMEs in India. We are extremely proud to have partners like Kotak Mahindra Bank, Aditya Birla Financial Services, and others who are enabling us to provide critical working capital to SMEs. All of us recognize that SMEs are the backbone of the economy and if India is to continue to witness high growth, then supporting them is non-negotiable. While the funds from this round will be used to replenish our loan book and widen our range across the country, we are confident that our relationship with these companies will help us collectively work towards empowering SMEs through seamless availability of working capital.”

Manish Kothari, Senior EVP & Business Head, Corporate Banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, “We, at Kotak Mahindra, believe that each start-up business has its own unique set of requirements linked to their business model and hence, understanding the nature of business and structuring the solution around it is essential. We are excited to work with Lendingkart Finance since we believe they have a unique and efficient proposition to finance customers – largely in a space which is not as effectively addressed by most banks.”

According to the company, as of today, Lendingkart Finance has disbursed over 12,000 loans to more than 9,500 SMEs across 23 diverse sectors.

Aligned with the Government of India’s agenda of building financial inclusion, Lendingkart Finance is working towards ensuring availability of working capital for SMEs across the country that currently do not have access to credit or are capital deficient, the company revealed in a statement.

It said Lendingkart Finance uses in-house technology tools based on big data analytics and machine learning algorithms to evaluate its client’s creditworthiness. About 5,000 data variables are assessed to determine factors like financial health, comparative market performance, social reliability and compliance. Once the evaluation process is completed, loan amount is disbursed to the deserving borrower within 72 hours from the time of application.