New unicorn
After raising $137 million, debt marketplace CredAvenue Pvt. became India’s latest unicorn. The funding was led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, B Capital Group, and Dragoneer, with participation from existing investors.
CredAvenue had closed its Series A funding round of $90 million led by Sequoia Capital India and co-led by Lightspeed, TVS Capital Funds and Lightrock in last September. That equity funding had valued the company at approximately $410 million, according to multiple media reports.
According to Gaurav Kumar, Founder and CEO of CredAvenue, said: “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform the global debt and collections market through a combination of the marketplace, operating system, and fulfillment.”
“CredAvenue, which has a solution for every stage of the debt product life cycle, expect to catapult on a hyper-growth trajectory over the next few years to make a difference for all Indian debt market participants and bring unprecedented transformation, akin to the equity markets of the 1990s, to the way a typical debt lifecycle is handled in India,” he added.
Expand business
The funds will be used by the company to expand the business in India along with key global markets, organically and inorganically. It plans to acquire diverse companies for the forward and backward services and products integration.
The comany has has broadened its offerings by recently acquiring Spocto, a collections company with global footprints. CredAvenue had bought a 75.1 per cent stake in the company, valuing the company at around Rs 410 crore, the Business Standard reported.
The company said it will also use the funds to enhance its technological capabilities by investing in technology innovation, AI-ML, and data analytics.
“By leveraging a next-gen business intelligence and data-collection platform, CredAvenue enables efficient match-making and minimises manual and recurring efforts in underwriting, executing, and monitoring debt,” said Nikhil Sachdev, managing director of Insight Partners.
“The company has already achieved incredible growth and key bank logos and partnerships in just 15 months. We look forward to partnering with CredAvenue as they continue to scale up,” he added. Sachdev will join the company’s Board.
