BharatPe, India’s leading financial services company for merchants, today announced that it has raised Rs. 50 crore (~US$ 7 mn) in debt from Northern Arc Capital, one of India’s leading digital debt finance platform that is focussed on improving access to finance for under-served businesses and individuals in India. This is the sixth round of debt financing for BharatPe in the year 2021. In January this year, the company had raised Rs. 200 crore (~US$ 26 mn) from three top debt companies in the country – Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital and Trifecta Capital, having later raised additional capital from ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.
Through the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, BharatPe has continued to support the credit requirements of its merchant partners and has emerged as one of the largest B2B fintech lenders in the country. Having already facilitated disbursals of over Rs. 1,600 crore (~US$ 230 mn) to more than 2 lac merchants since the launch of the lending vertical, BharatPe aims to disburse Rs 14,000 crore (~US$ 2 bn) in business loans by March 2023.
Northern Arc has been at the forefront of fighting the economic and social impact of the pandemic. It has directly disbursed over 3,500 crore (~US$ 500mn) over the last financial year to MSMEs, households, financial institutions and mid market corporates. It has also enabled flow of financing of over INR 1,000 crore (~USD 150mn) from reputed Development Financial Institutions from across the world to underbanked small businesses and households.
Commenting on the debt fund raise, Suhail Sameer, Group President, BharatPe, said “At BharatPe, we are committed to bridge the credit gap for SMEs and small merchants in the country. We have considerably ramped up our lending business in the last year and have set an ambitious target of facilitating disbursals to the tune of US$ 1 bn to 10 lacs+ merchants by the end of current fiscal (FY22). We are excited about our latest capital raise from Northern Arc and are confident that, together, we will be able to transform Bharat and serve the needs of the underserved businesses in India. As we aggressively build this vertical and roll out products in the secured lending space, we will continue to partner with institutional debt providers to help empower millions of small merchants in India.”
Commenting on the transaction, Bama Balakrishnan, COO, Northern Arc said, “Northern Arc has continually worked towards extending credit to like-minded organisations such as BharatPe that enable financial access to small businesses and merchants across the country. This transaction is a testament to Northern Arc’s commitment towards fulfilling the credit requirement of the under-banked segments of the country.”
About BharatPe
BharatPe was co-founded by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani in 2018 with the vision to make financial inclusion a reality for Indian merchants. In 2018, BharatPe launched India’s first UPI interoperable QR code, first zero MDR payment acceptance service, and first UPI payment backed merchant cash advance service. In 2020, post-Covid, BharatPe also launched India’s only zero MDR card acceptance terminals – BharatSwipe. Currently serving over 60 lakh merchants across 100 cities, the company is a leader in UPI offline transactions, processing 10 crores+ UPI transactions per month (annualized Transaction Processed Value of US$ 10+ Bn). The company has already facilitated disbursement of loans totaling to over Rs. 1,600 crores to its merchants since launch. BharatPe’s POS business processes payments of over Rs. 1,200 crores/ month. BharatPe has raised close to US$ 300 million in equity and debt, till date. The company’s list of marquee investors includes Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital, Beenext, Amplo and Sequoia Capital.
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