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Cloud-lending startup Lentra raised $27 million as a part of its extended series B round led by Tokyo-based Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) and investment firm Dharana Capital, the company said in a press statement.
In a previous series B fundraising round held last November, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup raised $60 million from existing investors, Bessemer Venture Partners and SIG Venture Capital, with participation from Citi Ventures.
MUFG Bank has invested in the startup through its Ganesha Fund for Indian enterprised. The deal is the first joint investment by MUFG bank and MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP), a corporate venture capital under the MUFG Group. The collaboration will support Lentra in exploring synergies in the group, including strategic partner banks in Southeast Asia.
“This partnership (with Lentra) affirms our commitment to supporting digital innovation in India and its expansion to other geographies,” said Shashank Joshi, deputy CEO of MUFG India.
“We have been scaling at a fast pace and this extended round is a strategic step towards fueling our ambition of empowering lenders globally. We are very excited that MUFG Bank and Dharana Capital are getting added to our cap table alongside our existing marquee investors like BVP, Citi, HDFC and SIG,” said D Venkatesh, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at Lentra.
The company has launched 1LMS, a loan management system that enables lenders to fulfill the needs of billions of borrowers at accelerated speed and accuracy. Founded by D Venkatesh and Ankur Handa in 2019, the cloud lending company claims to have serviced over 60 financial institutions and processed over $27 billion worth of loan applications on its platform.
The company has also extended its operations to Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the United States after setting up subsidiaries and accelerating go-to-market (GTM).
