Faircent raises Series B from prominent investors - Incofin, M&S Partners, Das Capital, 3one4 Capital, and MUTHOOT FINCORP
Will utilise the funds towards enhancing lending and asset class offerings, strengthening technology, and driving awareness in the market for P2P lending
Gurgaon, December 19, 2017: In a major development which highlights its exemplary growth and further validates its business model, Faircent, India’s largest P2P lending company, has recently raised Rs. 25 crore in a high-profile funding round. The latest funding, led by Incofin Investment Management, saw participation from all of Faircent’s existing investors – JM Financial, 3one4 Capital, M&S Partners Pte Ltd, and Aarin Capital – as well as six new investors, including prominent domain leaders such as Incofin IM, MUTHOOT FINCORP, EIP, Das Capital and Starharbor Asia Pte Ltd. Faircent will utilise the newly acquired funds towards strengthening the platform’s technology and creating greater awareness about P2P lending’s significance as a new and highly rewarding asset class.
Speaking on the investment, Rajat Gandhi, Founder and CEO, Faircent, commented, “These are exciting times for P2P lending in India, and Faircent is here to unleash the power of retail lending. As India’s largest platform, being backed by marquee investors, and the fact that the RBI has come out with progressive guidelines for the sector, is a great validation of Faircent’s business model. Moreover, with P2P lending, the financial market is all set to witness the creation of a totally new asset class.”
Aditya Bhandari, Co-head Asia, Incofin said, “Faircent provides an efficient and dynamic platform to directly connect lenders with varied profiles of borrowers. Using a comprehensive credit technology, Faircent eliminates substantial costs thereby offering attractive rates of interest for lenders as well as borrowers. We are excited about Faircent’s potential to collaborate with the highly underserved small & medium entrepreneurs by offering affordable and transparent financial products.
“Faircent.com has done a terrific job of balancing the multi-dimensional value proposition of P2P lending to consumers - both an easy and affordable credit option, as well as offering them a high-yield asset class that can easily compete with more traditional investments. The team is now strongly positioned to work alongside the new regulations and lead this revolution in the space. We are happy to continue working with the team to help it leverage its learnings and advanced workflows to grow the market for all the stakeholders involved”, said Mohandas Pai, co-founder Aarin Capital and Advisor to Faircent.com.
Shinji Kimura, Managing Director of Das Capital and Hiro Mashita of m&s partners jointly said, “Among all the other fintech products in the market currently, P2P lending has emerged as the clear winner, offering consumers both an easy and affordable credit option, as well as a high-yield asset class that can easily compete with any traditional investment instrument. With ample regulatory support from RBI, the future of investments and credit lending in India is going to be driven by P2P lending, and Faircent is poised lead this revolution in the future too, much like it has until now”
Thomas John Muthoot, Chairman & Managing Director, MUTHOOT FINCORP said, “Our legacy of over 130 years in the financial services has been centered around the customer. As a process, each one of us in the entire Muthoot Pappachan Group, live our customer’s life, day in and day out, resulting in bringing in products and services to transforming their lives. The Group has whole-heartedly recognized Technology as a key enabler in turning people’s dreams into reality and in Faircent.com we have identified the pioneering & leading player who has introduced P2P lending to India. Muthoot Fincorp, as part of the Muthoot Pappachan Group, are delighted to invest & partner with this value driven, new-age and forward-looking company and are confident that Faircent can transform the lending landscape in India”
About Incofin:
Incofin Investment Management is an international impact investor promoting financial inclusion, particularly in rural areas and in the agricultural sector. Incofin has more than 15 years of experience in dealing with risk capital in the form of debt and equity investments with ~$850m committed assets under management. Investments of Incofin IM target both creating value for investors and achieving inclusive progress. Incofin’s current investments in India include agri-to-finance integrated group Sohan Lal Commodity Management, Save Solutions (banking services and NBFC) and microfinance companies Fusion Microfinance and Annapurna Microfinance.
About 3one4:
3one4 Capital is an early-stage venture capital fund based in Bangalore, India. The fund invests in technology, product, and platform companies that drive the expansion of markets, capture value with differentiated propositions, and contribute to the creation of new verticals. 3one4 Capital works in select market categories and in the intersection of adjacencies that are large, growing, and ready for unique products and services. The focus areas include machine-driven actionable intelligence services for the enterprise, enterprise automation, edtech, fintech, media and multi-lingual content generation, agri-tech, health, and consumer-focused models.
About Aarin:
Aarin Capital Partners (founded by Mohandas Pai and Dr Ranjan Pai) is a stage-agnostic fund with the ability to actively support its investee companies from incubation to exit. Aarin seeks to create long-term value by partnering with talented, hungry management teams actively complementing their skills with insights derived from experience in building valuable companies. Aarin aims to build sizeable, profitable companies with sustainable value propositions. Focus areas include healthcare and life sciences, education and tech driven opportunities that embed disruptive, customer-focused technologies with the potential to address and transform large markets
About M&S Partners Pte Ltd:
The company is supporting the business growth of Venture Companies in IT sectors in US, Japan, China, India, SE Asia, and Africa, and consulting them in management, finance, global expansion, marketing, operation, HR, and so on.
About Das Capital:
Das Capital invests in predominantly early stage companies that target global economy’s inefficiencies and that promote decentralization. We thrive in following segments: Fintech, AI, and Shared Economy. Our portfolio companies come from Japan, India, USA, China, South Korea and various other countries.
About MUTHOOT FINCORP:
Muthoot Fincorp Ltd (MFL), the flagship Company of the Muthoot Pappachan Group, with a legacy of 130 years and with strong fundamentals is a proactive Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) registered with the Reserve Bank of India. A full financial services powerhouse, MFL has got an annual turnover of Rs. 20k Crores and is one of the largest purveyors of finance predominantly in the form of gold loan in the Country with over 3500 plus branches spread across the towns and villages Pan-India catering largely to the lower income segment. We serve on an average of 60,000 customers a day as a financial supermarket engaged primarily in lending products, 2-wheeler financing, micro finance, housing finance, insurance, money transfers, travel services and so on. Visit us at: www.muthoot.com and at: www.muthootfincorp.com to know more. You may also interact with us on our Facebook page: muthootindia and our Twitter handle at: @muthootindia.
About JM Financial Products:
JM Financial Products Ltd. (JMFPL) is the Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) of the JM Financial Group. It is a non-deposit accepting non-banking finance company registered with the Reserve Bank of India. The company enjoys the highest short-term credit rating of A1+ from CRISIL. JMFPL is a subsidiary of JM Financial Ltd. (JMFL) which is one of India’s prominent financial services groups, specialising in providing a spectrum of businesses to corporations, financial institutions, high net-worth individuals and retail investors. JMFL is known for its diverse businesses such as Investment Banking, Equity, Debt, Commodity Sales and Trading, Wealth Management, Portfolio Management Services, Asset Management, Alternative Asset Management, Financing and Lending, Housing Finance and Distressed Asset Management.
About Starharbor:
Starharbor Asia is an investment company to support entrepreneurs and businessmen who are growing in various fields. It conducts marketing, planning business strategies, joint development of IT services with investment partners.
About Elevate Innovation Partners (EIP):
Elevate Innovation Partners (“EIP”) is a leading Early-Stage Venture Capital Fund that is uniquely positioned to provide access to the most promising companies in New York, South East US, California as well as promising fintech companies in Europe and India.
EIP is an active fund that closely monitors its investments by working with management and company boards. They believe that the most successful funds take active roles to help guide its portfolio companies to a successful future and investors to effective exits.
About Faircent:
Faircent.com, founded by Rajat Gandhi and Vinay Mathews, is India's largest peer to peer lending website, which caters to retail and business loans. It is an online platform where, people who have spare money lend it directly to people who want to borrow, thereby eliminating intermediaries and the margins they used to make. Recently, Faircent.com, under the trusteeship of IDBI, created an Escrow account for its lenders to help in faster and smoother flow of funds enabling them to make greater returns on their investments.
In a development which reflects its technological prowess and market leadership, Faircent.com has been awarded the status of a 'Super Start Up 2017' by Superbrands. This latest achievement marks another addition in the long list of accolades garnered by Faircent.com for its disruptive and effective business approach. In its nascent history, Faircent.com has been able to garner recognition from the Industry - It was showcased as one of the top start-ups at Start Up India, selected for the first batch of NASSCOM 10,000. It is part of the Microsoft Accelerator Winter Cohort and BizSpark programme and was one of the top 10 companies from India to be selected for Web Summit in 2013. It is the only P2P lending company that has been acclaimed as the 'Interbrand Breakthrough Brand in Finance' by Interbrand in its Breakthrough Brands report 2016 in partnership with Facebook, NYSE & Ready Set Rocket. Recently, it was also awarded the NASSCOM Emerge50 given to India's high potential top 50 emerging companies in different domains.
To read press coverage please click here:
https://inc42.com/buzz/p2p-lending-startup-faircent-funding/
https://www.vccircle.com/p2p-lending-platform-faircent-bags-4-mn-in-series-b-round/
https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/india-dealbook-178-88939/
http://techstory.in/faircent-raises-funding-incofin-muthoot-fincorp-2017/
http://entrackr.com/2017/12/lending-faircent-secures-rs-25-cr/
https://lending-times.com/2017/12/20/wednesday-november-20-2017-daily-news-digest/#heading-44
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