Digital lending platform Kissht raises $30 mn in Series C financing round

Fintech company Kissht has raised $30 million in its Series C financing round led by Vertex Ventures SE Asia and India and Sistema Asia Fund. Existing investors Fosun RZ Capital, Ventureast and Endiya Partners also participated in the round.

Founded in 2015 by Krishnan Vishwanathan and Ranvir Singh, Kissht provides purchase financing and personal loans to its customers through a financial technology platform, which is integrated with online and offline merchants.

Kissht will use this funding to increase its base of both offline and online merchants, deepen its presence across categories, and enhance its data and analytics capabilities.

The company has developed a proprietary self-learning algorithm, which assesses customer’s credit profile in a fraction of a second based on more than 2,000 digital footprints.

“Taking a loan remains a deeply undemocratic experience in India. Customers not only want a loan, but they want it in a jiffy. Unlike traditional players, on the back of risk algorithms, we have been neither timid nor tentative in leveraging data.  We have just scratched the surface in purchase financing. We aspire to create the indelible experience of dignified lending, which will drive customer loyalty ”, Ranvir Singh, co-founder of Kissht  said.

Currently, Kissht is present in 50 plus online and more than 3,500 offline points of sale across categories including consumer durables, electronics, health, alternative energy and education, enabling customers to easily access credit for their purchases.

“Our data-centric algorithms and technology platform allows us to underwrite the new to credit and excluded segments extensively while ensuring we are risk prudent. We will use the funding to further accelerate growth”,  said Krishnan Vishwanathan, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Kissht.  

India is a credit-starved country with a $140 billion annual credit gap that Kissht is addressing through its proprietary technology and innovative financial products. "We are excited to partner with Krishnan and Ranvir in their journey," Dhruv Kapoor, Managing Director at Sistema Asia Capital said.