Small businesses-focused digital lender Lendingkart has acquired personal loan provider Upwards in a cash-and-stock deal worth Rs 100 – 120 crore.
As part of the acquisition, Upwards investors Mayfield and India Quotient will get an equity stake in Lendingkart, while its other major investor Shunwei Capital (Chinese Venture) will cash out.
Lendingkart Founder and CEO Harshvardhan Lunia said, Shunwei Capital one of the investors in Upwards, will be exiting the company following this acquisition. “Shunwei Capital will no longer be part of the cap table.
After the acquisition, Lendingkart will continue to retain the Upwards brand and will absorb its entire 100-member team. The acquisition will allow Lendingkart to focus on lending to micro-entrepreneurs as well as allow its MSME borrowers to extend personal loans to their blue-collar workforce.
Commenting on the acquisition, Harshvardhan Lunia said, “Lendingkart’s agenda has always been to support the underserved segment. We have created a sustainable and profitable business with our efforts to provide access to finance to a segment that has long and perhaps still been considered one of the toughest to evaluate and provide support to. With this acquisition, our intent is to expand our services and utilize tech capabilities to bridge the financial gap in the customer loan segment, especially in Tier 2/3/4markets.”
Founded in 2017 by Abhishek Soni and Nimesh Verma, Upwards provides personal loans and instant credit lines to users, with an average ticket size of Rs 1.5 lakh. It claims 10 million downloads since inception and has an active loan book of Rs 200 crore.
Upwards has previously secured Rs 32 crore in 2018 in a round led by Shunwei Capital, a venture capital arm of Xiaomi.
Lendingkart aims to exit FY23 with overall revenue of $100 million and an outstanding loan book of Rs 5,000 crore. At present, Lendingkart’s direct exposure stands at roughly 20% of the overall loan disbursed every month with a monthly disbursal of Rs 400 crore.