Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Lendingkart.
We often hear stories of startup ventures that live short life because of inadequate fund flow and working capital limitations. The arrangement of short-term working capital has always been a challenge for new ventures. Hence in the year 2014, Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan founded Lendingkart to bridge this financial gap in the industry. Let's have a look at how Lendingkart is helping businesses grow and how the company is functioning.
Lendingkart - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | Lendingkart |
|---|---|
| Headquarter | Ahmedabad |
| Founders | Harshvardhan Lunia & Mukul Sachan |
| Sector | Fintech |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Funding | $272.99 mn (July 2, 2022) |
| Parent Organization | Lendingkart Technologies Private Limited |
| Website | lendingkart.com |
About Lendingkart and How it Works
Founders of Lendingkart and team
How was Lendingkart Started?
Lendingkart - Mission
Lendingkart - Logo and Tagline
Lendingkart - Competitors
Lendingkart - Funding and Investors
Lendingkart - Growth and Revenue
Lendingkart - Acquisitions
Lendingkart - Investments
About Lendingkart and How it Works
Lendingkart is helping micro, small and medium-sized enterprises access working capital loans to facilitate the easy functioning of the enterprise. The whole idea behind Lendingkart is that the entrepreneurs in the 35-45 years age bracket need short-term working capital loans for their SMEs. Lendingkart’s whole business module revolves around facilitating the availability of credit to small and micro businesses digitally and this process is effectively driven by data and analytics. So, cutting a long story short, it lends short-term capital loans to the companies who need them for carrying on with their day-to-day activities. Lendingkart's tagline “think cash, think of Lendingkart group.”, perfectly reflects the company's ideology.
Lendingkart aims to solve the huge gap in the developing markets where the firms have to wait for days before they get paid by their previous clients. And this possesses a huge hurdle for many who haven’t ploughed back any profits. Therefore Lendingkart came into being to service these firms because their options are severely limited as traditional banks find them too risky to lend money.
Lakshya Singh
Founders of Lendingkart and team
Harshvardhan Lunia is the Co-Founder & CEO of Lendingkart. Before founding Lendingkart, Harshvardhan was a founder and director at Domestic Finance and Investment private limited. A chartered accountant by profession, Harshvardhan also worked as a Relationship Manager at ICICI Bank, City Manager (SME banking) at Standard Chartered Bank and Small Business Relationship Manager at HDFC bank, before starting his entrepreneurial journey.
Lendingkart co-founder Mukul Sachan, is an IIT and IIM alumnus and has wide experience both in the field of engineering and finance. Mukul exited Lendingkart in May 2019, to start his own venture, Optimus Capital.
The total number of Lendingkart employees has been listed between 201-500 in its Linkedin company profile.
How was Lendingkart Started?
Having worked in the financial sector for quite a few years, Harshvardhan, could see the issues that the small and medium businesses were facing due to the lack of working capital. He noticed that the traditional banks and NBFCs were not willing to offer credit to small businesses. Harshvardhan wanted to make a difference in this scenario, which made him leave his high-paying job in London and start with Lendingkart. Harshvardhan's friend Mukul Sachan joined him in the venture.
Parnas Ghosh
Lendingkart - Mission
Lendingkart's mission is to simplify finance for SMEs.
Lendingkart - Logo and Tagline
The Lendingkart tagline says, “think cash, think of Lendingkart group.”
Lendingkart - Competitors
Lendingkart Technologies operates as a fintech company in the working capital space. Lendingkart's top competitors working in the same domain include ventures like:
- Cash Suvidha
- Scivantage
- Reink Media Group
- Advanced Credit Technologies
Lendingkart - Funding and Investors
Lendingkart has raised 14 rounds of funding to date, which equals $272.99 mn. The last round of funding that Lendingkart raised came in on July 2, 2022, when the company raised a debt round worth Rs 75 crore ($9.49 mn), from GMO LLC and Triodos Investment Management. These fresh funds will have the company offer MSME loans across states. This round consists of 2 tranches of funding, the first of which (INR 25 cr) would come from GMO LLC whereas the rest (INR 50 cr) would come from Triodos via non-convertible debentures.
| Funding Date | Stage | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2, 2022 | Debt Financing | $9.49 mn | GMO LLC and Triodos Investment Management |
| January 12, 2022 | Debt Financing | $5.57 mn | BlueOrchard Finance S A |
| April 6, 2021 | Debt Financing | $15 mn | FMO |
| May 19, 2020 | Series D | $40.53 mn | Bertelsmann India Investments, Fullerton Financial Holdings, India Quotient, Sistema Asia Capital |
| August 16, 2019 | Venture Round | $2.65 mn | Sistema Asia Capital |
| August 9, 2019 | Series D | $26.85 mn | Fullerton Financial Holding, Bertelsmann India Investments and India Quotient. |
| June 17, 2019 | Debt Financing | $10.13 mn | Alteria Capital |
| February 12, 2018 | Series C | $71.56 mn | Fullerton Financial Holdings |
| Dec 27, 2017 | Debt Financing | $3.16 mn | State Bank of India |
| September 6, 2017 | Series C | $8.86 mn | Sistema Asia Capital, Bertelsmann India Investment, Mayfield India, Saama Capital, India Quotient and Darrin Capital Management |
| Jun 12, 2017 | Debt Financing | $6.33 mn | Yes Bank |
| April 13, 2017 | Debt Financing | $3.79 mn | Anicut Capital |
| Jun 28, 2016 | Series B | $25.96 mn | Bertelsmann India Investments, Darrin Capital Management, Mayfield India, Saama Capital and India Quotient |
| Jul 8, 2015 | Series A | $7.97 mn | Saama Capital and Mayfield Fund |
Lendingkart - Growth and Revenue
Lendingkart has been founded in 2014 in Ahmedabad. The company first started with a single office in Ahmedabad, it has gradually set up several other offices as well, in Bengaluru, Gurugram, and Mumbai, and is currently also offering pan-India services. All of these directly indicate that Lendingkart is a growing company.
Both local and reputed global investors had backed Lendingkart so far. The names include Bertelsmann, Fullerton Financial Holding, Mayfield India, Saama Capital, Sistema Asia, and more. Besides, it is also important to note that Lendingkart has raised around $132.99 mn in equity so far on July 2, 2022, which shows that it is backed well.
Some other growth highlights of Lendingkart include:
- Reviewed more than a million applications
- Disbursed 170K+ loans
- Disbursed around Rs 10,000+ crore
- Extended credit to more than 55,000 MSMEs
- Covered 4000+ cities and union territories of the nation.
Lendingkart Financials and Revenue
Lendingkart has reported Rs 499 crore in revenue in FY21, which rose by 6%. The losses of the company also increased by 32%, which were registered at Rs 28.4 crore. The company had last registered Rs 464 crore in revenue in FY20 when the company doubled its revenues, which rose by around 118% from Rs 218 crore worth of revenue in FY19.
The expenses of Lendingkart also doubled along with the increase in its revenues in FY20, which increased from Rs 198 crore in FY19 to Rs 422 crore in FY20, thereby witnessing a profit of Rs 29.6 crore after tax in FY20. It previously recorded a loss of Rs 52.26 crore in FY18, with a revenue of Rs 91.8 crore in the same fiscal.
Lendingkart - Acquisitions
Lendingkart has acquired 1 company to date. KountMoney was its maiden acquisition, which was acquired on October 18, 2016.
| Name | Date of Acquisition | Deal Value |
|---|---|---|
| KountMoney | October 18, 2016 | - |
Lendingkart - Investments
To talk about Lendingkart investments is to speak about its investment in Federal Transport Private Limited on April 5, 2019.
| Name | Date | Deal Value | Lead Investor | Funding Round |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Transport Private Limited | April 5, 2019 | $14.3K | Yes | Debt Financing |
FAQs
What is Lendingkart?
Lendingkart is an Ahmedabad-based online financing company, which helps SMEs attain short-term working capital loans.
Where are the Lendingkart headquarters?
Lendingkart headquarters is in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Who are the founders of Lendingkart?
Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan are the founders of Lendingkart.
