P2P backer expands into India
Peer-to-peer lending platform backer Fasanara Capital has made its first small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) fintech investment in India through an investment in digital lending platform FlexiLoans.
The investment was made as part of the firm’s $90m (£72m) series B funding round.
The funding round, which comprised around $28m in equity infusion and the balance in debt commitment, will be used to support FlexiLoans’ focus on technology development and to more than double its micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) book via its co-lending, buy-now-pay-later and supply chain finance platforms.
Private equity company MAJ and the family offices of Dr Harry Banga and Yogesh Mahansaria, as well as existing shareholders including veteran banker Sanjay Nayar, also participated in the round.
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“India is a strong market for MSME financing and we are delighted to partner with FlexiLoans, which is amongst the pioneers in the digital MSME lending space in India and shares a similar commitment to Fasanara’s to reduce the financing gap for MSMEs,” said Francesco Filia, chief executive of Fasanara Capital.
“Embedded financing to merchants in the ecommerce ecosystem is a sweet spot that we invest in across the world and FlexiLoans.com has a strong product led partnerships in India for the same.”
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“We are very excited to have institutional players MAJ Invest, Fasanara Capital and the Banga and Mahansaria family offices join us in our mission to help small businesses grow in India,” said Deepak Jain, co-founder of FlexiLoans.
“Their experience in developing global fintech companies will help us in creating better products as well as organisational building.”
Fasanara Capital has previously invested in UK P2P platforms including Fund Ourselves.