SlicePay, a digital payment platform which caters to students, has raised about ₹13 crore ($2 million) in a Series A round from Japanese investment fund Das Capital and Russia-based early-stage investor Simile Venture Partners.
Along with these two new investors, the company’s existing investor — Blume Ventures has also participated in the current funding round. The startup will use the financing to expand its operations to three more cities, as well as to fill in senior level positions.
Rajan Bajaj, co-founder of the company, said,
This capital would allow us to serve students in other parts of India for both their education and consumption-related credit needs. We have been focused on building a playbook for risk and growth over the past couple of years, and this capital would now allow us to serve students in other parts of India for both their education and consumption-related credit needs.
In a statement, Shinji Kimura of Das Capital said,
Being the first lender to an educated youngster in India and having robust banking partnerships to cater to their other lending-related needs as they grow, gives SlicePay a unique advantage in the highly competitive lending landscape.
Founded in November 2015 by Rajan Bajaj and Deepak Malhotra, Bangalore-based SlicePay enables college students to buy products and services online on monthly payment plans, without any collateral.
The startup provides a credit line of up to ₹60,000 to students from over 500 colleges through its proprietary risk mechanism. The final loan disbursal is done by the partner non-banking financial company.