Indian FinTech Startup BharatPe raises $75 Million In Series C

BharatPe secured $75 million through a Series C funding round led by investors Ribbit Capital and Coatue Management. BharatPe aspires to scale new heights and take on the competition with the freshly raised funds. The company also plans to expand its Non-banking Financial Company (NBFC) wing that is still waiting to get its license from Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

As per sources, Ribbit Capital, a Palo-Alto based investor, and Coatue Management, a New York-based investor pumped in $25 million each in this new funding round. Other investors such as the Amplo, a U.S based Venture Capital firm, and Bharatpe’s existing investors such as Insight Partners and Steadview Capital also participated in this funding round.

Ashneer Grover, co-founder and chief executive of BharatPe, said the startup would use the fresh capital to back working capital for its merchant partners.

BharatPe has disbursed about $14 million “short-term” loans to over 20,000 merchants in the last seven months. New merchants can secure about $500 for three months from BharatPe. As merchants spend more time on the platform, the firm increases the amount to $2,000, he added.

https://twitter.com/bharatpeindia/status/1227994240556380166

As per reports, Insight Partners invested approximately $ 8.5 million, Amplo invested $ 12.4 million, and Steadview Capital invested $3.9 million. This new fundraising round, along with three previous fundraising rounds, bought in $143 million for BharatPe. 

FinTech startup Bharatpe founded in the year 2018 by Shashvat Nakrani and Ashneer Grover, is encouraging thousands of businessmen and merchants to go digital for the first time with their payment modes and is also providing merchants with working capital support. 

The Series C funding round was preceded by the Series B round six months back, which bought in $50 million. Post the Series B funding round, Bhartpe announced that it aspires to expand its current merchant base to 5+ million by the forthcoming year with the help of the funds raised. Currently, the merchant base stands at 3+ million.

BharatPe’s competitors PhonePe (merchant base of 10 million) and Paytm (merchant base 16 million) have a much bigger merchant base when compared to BharatPe.

The competition is intense in the UPI payments and digital lending space in India.