Aiming to raise $700 mn in debt over next 2 yrs: BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer

Delhi-based BharatPe said it has raised Rs 100 cr each as debt from IIFL Wealth & Asset Management, and Northern Arc Capital

Financial services startup BharatPe said it has raised Rs 100 crore each as debt from IIFL Wealth & Asset Management, one of India’s leading wealth and asset management companies and Northern Arc Capital, one of India’s leading debt platforms. BharatPe shared that with this seventh round of debt fundraise of Rs 200 crore, it has raised a total of over Rs 500 crore in debt at competitive rates in 2021. The company added that it plans to raise $ 250 million in debt by the end of FY22.

“We have witnessed a surge in demand for merchant loans, with multi-fold growth over the last one year,” said Suhail Sameer, chief executive officer, BharatPe. “With the festive season coming up soon, we are committed to scaling our lending vertical aggressively and have set a target of 10x growth in lending by FY23.”

Sameer said the firm has set a target to raise $700 million in debt over the next two years to facilitate this credit growth. It will continue to explore partnerships with domestic and international investors, ranging from banks, NBFCs, credit funds, large pension funds and impact investors and development financial institutions.

“We are delighted to have started a lending relationship with BharatPe, an exciting company with a compelling value proposition for merchants in India,”  said Pranob Gupta, Senior EVP, IIFL Wealth and Asset Management.

Earlier this year, BharatPe had raised over Rs 300 crore from top venture debt funds (Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital and Trifecta Capital), banks (ICICI Bank and Axis Bank) and NBFC (Northern Arc Capital). Its lending vertical has grown exponentially over the last 1.5 years. The company had emerged as one of the largest B2B Fintech lenders in India during the pandemic last year. BharatPe has already disbursed over $300 million in unsecured loans to over 200,000 merchant partners and has a loan book of over $100 million.

Nishit Sharma, chief revenue officer of BharatPe said the firm is committed to empowering its merchant partners and intend to build a loan book of $1 billion by March 2023.

“As we expand our offering across new cities, we will also be adding secured lending products such as gold loans and two-wheeler loans to our existing set of offerings for merchants,” said Sharma.

Northern Arc is a platform that caters to the diverse credit requirements of under-served households and businesses. The company has raised over Rs 95,000 crore for its clients.

Bama Balakrishnan, COO, Northern Arc said technology, coupled with the right financial products, can empower under-served small enterprises, merchants and households. “We hope to deepen and widen this partnership across products, offerings and investor segments.”