Mumbai based, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending platform LenDenClub has raised $1 million in Pre-series A round funding from Artha Venture Fund, Transworld Group, and others.
“With the participation of existing investors, several family offices as UAE based Transworld Group, and Angel investors like Shuchi Kothari, Ramakant Sharma, Narendra Karnavat, Nandi Mehta,” The India based Artha Venture Fund led the new round funding.
The company, in its statement, said, “The new round funding will be used for expanding its senior management team, product development and also for expanding its geographical reach in 12 states.”
Speaking on the investment in LenDenClub, Anirudh A Damani, Fund Managing Partner, Artha Venture fund said, “P2P lending truly democratizes the lending ecosystem in India by removing the middlemen, i.e., the NBFC’s and banks that have successfully credit-starved the Indian consumer.”
“Their spectacular growth in lender registrations and money disbursed is even more heartening at a time wherein the entire lending ecosystem is petitioning the government for a bailout. There may not be a better poster boy for the success of P2P in India,” Anirudh Added.
Whereas, Vinod Keni, Fund’s Growth Partner said, “LenDenClub’s solution of directly connecting individual lenders to borrowers has been a resounding success. It has, no doubt, been a pleasure to work with LenDenClub in their journey of making P2P platforms equivalent to the banking ecosystem in India.”
Speaking more the Funding, Bhavin Patel, Co-Founder, and CEO, LenDenClub said, “The current funding round gives us the ability to double our reach and continue our quest in finding creditworthy borrowers that are not being serviced by the current financial institutions.”
“We also aim to double the number of lenders on the platform to reach Rs. 500 crores disbursal in the next 18 months,” he added.