Indian digital lending company KreditBee has reportedly secured USD 75 million funds through a Series C funding round which was led by PremjiInvest and South Korea-based Mirae Asset Financial Group.

The equity round also involved the participation of Alpine Capital, a US-based venture capital firm as well as Arkam Ventures for an undisclosed amount, cited sources aware of the development.

The deal was a combination of primary as well as secondary transactions, wherein prevailing China-backed investors made a partial or a complete exit from the company.

Moreover, the new funding round allowed KreditBee’s parent company, Finnovation Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd., to reduce its China-based support to around 10% from the initial 40%.

KreditBee, which currently has over 1,200 employees and a 20 million user base stated that it intends to expand its borrower base as well as diversify its product offering by venturing into digitally-enabled insurance and loans.

Madhusudan E, KreditBee’s Chief Executive was reported saying that the fresh investments reflect on the company’s efforts to offer credit to around 180 million NTC (new-to-credit) customers.

Existing Chinese investors such as technology giant Xiaomi Corporation has reportedly made a complete exit, while Kunlun and Shunwei Capital have reduced their holding in Finnovation, sources claimed.

For those uninitiated, KreditBee was launched by Finnovation to focus on full-stack digital lending, primarily for young professionals. Founded in May 2018, the platform specializes in offering personal loans as well as consumer durable loans worth over USD 2,700 with tenures ranging from a couple of months to more than a year.

The company had previously secured USD 8 million from Xiaomi and Shunwei in the year 2017. It had also added USD 43 million to its kitty in a Series B funding round from ICICI Bank and Arkam Ventures.

Notably, the recent development comes amidst rising geopolitical tensions between China and India as well as over alleged malpractices of various short-tenure loan apps in this business space. This had compelled Indian regulators to crack down on money lending apps backed by China-based investors.

Source Credits –

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/funding/kreditbee-gets-75-million-in-series-c-funding-from-premjiinvest-others/articleshow/80913462.cms