Mumbai-based digital lending startup Kissht has raised ₹216 crores in series C round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India and Sistema Asia Fund. Other existing investors that participated in the round include Fosun RZ Capital, Ventureast, and Endiya Partners.
The funds raised will be used to increase its base of both online and offline merchants, deepening its presence across categories, along with enhancing its data and analytics capabilities.
Kissht is founded by former McKinsey consultants Krishnan Vishwanathan and Ranvir Singh in 2015. It provides a financial technology platform to facilitate EMI financing and personal loans to its customers at offline and online merchants.
Krishnan Vishwanathan, CEO and co-founder of Kissht, said, “At Kissht, we are continuously striving for innovative affordability solutions that do justice to the growing and aspirational middle-class of India,”.
He further added, “Our data-centric algorithms and technology platform allows us to underwrite the new to credit and excluded segments extensively while ensuring we are risk prudent. We will use the funding to further accelerate growth.”
The fintech startup offers loans and credit financing across various categories like consumer durables, electronics, health, alternative energy, and education. It claims to disburse around ₹50 crores of loans every month through its more than 50 online merchants and over 3000 offline points of sales.
While the startup is looking to deepen its presence in over 30 cities, it is also planning to expand to around 100-150 cities in the next five years.
Kissht last raised $10 million in venture funding from Fosun RZ Capital, Ventureast, and Endiya Partners in November 2017.
Other digital lending startups competing with Kissht include Lendingkart, MoneyTap, Capital Float, Olly Credit, and SlicePay, among many others.
In recent news, microlending startup Upwards raised ₹36 crores in series A funding led by Chinese venture capital firm Shunwei Capital and fintech startup Bon raised ₹7.8 crores in seed funding led by Omidyar Network.