Flexiloans, a Mumbai-headquartered digital lending platform catering to MSMEs, has raised $90 million Series B capital in a mix of equity and debt as it carves out its expansion plans amidst the Indian government’s push to spruce up innovation in the burgeoning fintech sector.
Earlier this year, the Reserve Bank of India had said that it will put together a separate fintech department keeping in mind the sector’s rapidly changing landscape.
The funding in Flexiloans has been led by Danish private equity (PE) firm MAJ Invest, with the participation of UK-based fintech investor Fasanara Capital and the family offices of Harry Banga and Yogesh Mahansaria alongside many existing shareholders such as Sanjay Nayar.
“The funds will be used to ramp up existing business lines and strengthen technology for merchant BNPL, automated journeys, supply chain and co-lending platforms,” Deepak Jain, co-founder at Flexiloans told DealStreetAsia in an interview.
In India, small businesses often face problems while accessing funds for expansion. In fact, industry estimates suggest that over 80% of the loan proposals from SMEs often are rejected by institutional channels on account of inadequate financial history or collaterals.
“We believe that fintech (which is not restricted to lending) will be a major enabler for the country’s tier-II and tier-III population which has been underserved so far,” said Nayar. “The Indian MSMEs are a highly underserved lot and we will need many more fintech firms to thrive to fill the gap,” he added.
Edited excerpts from an interview with Jain.
