Debt marketplace CredAvenue, which helps businesses and corporations secure debt from lenders, has become the fastest Indian fintech startup to join the unicorn club, it said on Sunday.
The two-year-old startup raised a $137 million Series B funding round led by Insight Partners, B Capital Group and Dragoneer, he said. Round values CredAvenuewhich was founded by Vivriti Capital co-founder Gaurav Kumar at $1.3 billion, up from around $410 million in September last year, he said.
The startup, which counts Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed Venture Partners, TVS Capital, Lightrock, Vivriti Capital and Indian fintech CRED among its backers, has raised more than $227 million to date.
Companies face many challenges, including the opacity of interest rates and market valuation, when they have to take on debt.
“This is my fourth startup and I’ve spent over 16 years in the lending space,” Kumar said, in an interview with TechCrunch. “Debt market deepening is not happening.”
CredAvenue has built what it says is India’s most comprehensive technology stack to address the full corporate debt cycle, from disbursement to collection.
It operates platforms for providing term loans and working capital solutions to businesses, an origination platform for banks and non-bank financial institutions to partner for co-lending, and a bond platform to help institutional and retail participants issue bonds. In addition, it also offers trade finance, end-to-end securitization, and portfolio buyouts.
“If you are a business and prefer direct funding, you can look to our loan stack, our bond stack and our ABS stack. If you need indirect financing, you can set up on the co-ending platform and bring in your individual customers. Our clients are all companies with revenues over $1.3 million,” he said.
“Once a partner—whether it’s a lender-side bank or a borrower—integrates with us on our operating system, you have access to everyone sitting on our network. . At the heart of our offer, there is interoperability. We are paving the way for the Indian debt market to realize its full potential, and we plan to soon become a leading player in global debt markets with our unique and diverse product suites.
It recently acquired a collection startup called Spocto, which operates in three markets. But the startup overall plans to continue to focus on India, Kumar said. “We have barely scratched the surface.”
CredAvenue has facilitated more than $10.5 billion in loans to date, Kumar said. More than 2,300 companies, 450 businesses and 750 lenders are active on the platform, he said. The startup plans to deploy the new funds to expand its business in India and is also looking to acquire businesses to fuel its growth inorganically.
“We are excited about CredAvenue’s value proposition of bringing investors and borrowers to a one-stop-shop ecosystem to discover, facilitate and track debt products. I have had the privilege of knowing Gaurav for several years, and it is exciting to support the strong team digitizing the Indian debt markets. Debt in India is still under-penetrated as a % of GDP at around 60%. This creates a huge opportunity for a top player like CredAvenue,” Kabir Narang, founding general partner of B Capital Group, said in a statement.
“At $1.9 trillion, the Indian debt market is still underserved. CredAvenue helps automate and increase efficiency throughout the value chain. This is reflected in high retention among borrowers and repeated deals with investors. We like their technological approach to solving this problem. Beyond the business, what’s even more exciting is the mission and impact they have in providing access to debt to unlock human potential.
