Online peer-to-peer lending platform LenDen Club has announced that it has secured around ₹3.5 crore ($500,000) from an undisclosed Mumbai-based venture capital fund.
Along with the Mumbai-based VC firm, existing investors Venture Catalyst and Anirudh Damani-founded Artha India Ventures has also participated in the round.
The company says that it will use the fresh capital to enhance its product platform and improve tech automation. Last year, in April 2016, the company had raised an undisclosed amount in seed round from Venture Catalysts and Anirudh Damani.
The funding will also help the the company achieve the minimum capital requirement of ₹2 crore for registration as set by the Reserve Bank of India in its recent directive on P2P lending.
Anirudh Damani, who is an investor in the company, said,
The P2P lending model in India not only presents a great opportunity, but will also facilitate access to capital and financial inclusion for segments of our population, which fall outside of the purview of the traditional BFSI segment. This is an exciting space, and we want to be there with LenDenClub while P2P lending grows in India.
Bhavin Patel, co-founder and CEO of the company, said,
We have the unique capability to assess borrowers who may or may not have a digital footprint and social media presence. After seeing the rapid growth and adoption of our platform in last 2-3 quarters by borrowers and lenders alike, we have set ambitious targets for disbursals in the coming months. This investment will help us achieve those goals and further enhance our platform.
LenDen Club was founded in 2014 by Dipesh Karki and Bhavin Patel. The platform connects salaried borrowers to individual lenders which uses a combination of traditional and non-traditional data points to validate credit-worthiness of borrowers.
It approves loans after an 18-hour time gap upon request and disburses loans in three days. The company claims to have arranged and completed loan transactions worth ₹17 crore on its platform.