CreditMantri raises Rs 51 crore in series B

CHENNAI: Fintech startup CreditMantri has raised Rs 51 crore ($7.6 million) in a series B round led by Quona Capital. The fund raise saw participation from Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, managed by Quona Capital along with Newid Capital and existing investors — Elevar Equity, IDG Partners and Accion Venture Lab.

CreditMantri was founded by former Citibank executives, Ranjit Punja, R Sudarshan and Gowri Mukherjee in 2012. The startup offers a platform for consumers to create their credit profile to help them assess their credit potential and make informed decisions. In arriving at the credit profile, the company uses a combination of traditional data — credit reports and alternative data — social media, data from mobile phones etc. The startup is also a marketplace for various credit offerings such as credit card, personal loan etc with over 41 vendors, and . The company has served over 1.4 million users till date. CreditMantri also works with financial institutions in the area of verification and underwriting.

The current funding is over three times the series A funding it bagged in May 2015 when Elevar Equity, IDG Partners and Accion Venture Lab infused Rs 15 crore ($2.5 million).

“Our first round helped us test the concept, build the product and the initial team. This round will go towards scaling the business and growing the user base. We will add more functionalities and features besides growing our team. We are not just a loan obtaining platform. Our core lies in credit profiling and helping those who need credit,” said CEO Ranjit Punja. From a 75 member team, Punja hopes to have 130 by the end of the year.

“Lending in India, and doing so responsibly, is a huge opportunity, and alternative data is the key to unlocking this potential. The digitization of Indian consumers’ financial data, pioneered by CreditMantri, is the catalyst that will help build a truly financially inclusive India. Quona is very excited to partner with CreditMantri team and we have tremendous confidence in the team and the way they are solving this important problem,” says Ganesh Rengaswamy, founding partner, Quona Capital.