Amazon infuses Rs 144 Cr into Capital float in extended Series C round

Capital Float which counts SAIF Partners, Sequoia India, and Silicon Valley-based Ribbit Capital as major investors, has bagged Rs 144 crore from global e-commerce giant Amazon.

The latest round is said to be an extension of the Bengaluru based startup's Series C round. In August last year, the SMEs-focused digital lender has raised around $45 million Series C funding.

For capital Float equity funding now clocks around $110 million from Amazon and other existing investors. The firm has also raised about $130 million in debt from leading banks and NBFCs.

Capital Float is the second bet for the US-based firm in terms of fintech space in India. Earlier, it invested in BankBazaar, Qwikcilver Solutions, Housejoy, and others. With the latest inclusion of Capital Float in its portfolio, Amazon's interest in digital lending seems to be increasing.

The firm will use the funds to add new lending categories, develop new technological capabilities and to grow its loan book.

Capital Float was founded in 2013 by Sashank Rishyasringa and Gaurav Hinduja. Its offerings include e-commerce seller financing, term loans, receivables financing and commercial vehicle loans.

Currently, the company claims to have 50,000 customers across 300 cities in India. It also disburses more than 10,000 loans each month and now has an outstanding loan portfolio of more than $170 million, with a default rate of about 2 percent.

About 70 percent of its loans are microloans ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 500,000.
Capital Float’s customers include small and big merchants selling on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart, retailers and wholesalers, restaurants, and kirana stores among others.

During the Series C funding round of Capital Float, some reports surfaced about Amazon and Flipkart entering into digital lending space. As per the report, Flipkart was in the final stages of getting a license on the other hand Amazon is anticipated to launch its lending business by early 2018 in India.

Notably, Flipkart and Amazon account for nearly 25 percent of loans disbursed by a slew of fintech lending startups such as Capital Float, Lending Kart amongst others.

In October, last year, Tata Capital had tied up with Capital Float to provide financial aid to SMEs. Tata will co-lend on Capital Float online platform, where both the companies will jointly offer ‘Pay Later’ products to SMEs.

The development was first reported by TechCrunch.