InCred Financial Services Ltd (InCred Finance), the lending arm of financial services firm InCred Group, has raised ₹500 crore in its Series D round of funding from new and existing investors. Following the fresh capital infusion, InCred has been valued at $1.04 billion and has become the second company to gain unicorn status this year.
The equity round was led by Ranjan Pai of MEMG who invested $9 million followed by Ravi Pillai, Chairman at RP Group of Companies, and Ram Nayak, Global Co-head of the investment bank and Head of fixed income and currencies at Deutsche Bank, who invested $5.4 million and $1.2 million, respectively.
The fundraise also saw participation from several large ultra-high-net-worth individuals and family offices, as well as institutional investors like Varanium Capital Advisors and Sattva Group.
Also read: Valuation of 10 unicorns is below a billion dollars
The equity capital of ₹500 crore will be deployed across InCred’s core business verticals– consumer loans, student loans, and MSME lending.
The latest development comes 16 months after the firm completed its merger with American PE giant KKR’s local non-banking finance arm in July last year in an all-stock deal.
Significant milestone
InCred Financial Services was formed by the merger of KKR India Financial Services Ltd and the erstwhile InCred Financial. KKR, along with two other investors, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, together hold a little more than a third of stake in the merged entity.
The market for student loans in India has surged, driven by the doubling of US student visas issued to Indians from 50,000 to 1,00,000 over the past two years. The MSME business is seeing substantial growth, particularly in the secured LAP market nationwide, said the company in its statetment.
“This funding marks a significant milestone in our journey and takes us into the ranks of unicorns. This equity capital will help us take advantage of these opportunities, strengthen our balance sheet and provide us enough runway for the next couple of years of expansion. With our ‘risk first’ approach, cutting-edge technology, and class-leading management team, we are well-positioned for sustained growth in the business over the years to come,” said Bhupinder Singh, Founder and Group CEO of InCred.
InCred is a new-age lender offering online and offline loans to consumers, small businesses and for education. It manages a loan book of ₹7,500 crore.