Digital lending platform ZestMoney secures $13.4 Mn from Xiaomi, PayU and others

Digital lending startups are having a ball in India. In the recent past we have witnessed back to back capital infusion into fintech lending platforms, In yet another funding round, digital lending platform ZestMoney has raised $13.4 million in a round led by Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi.

The fresh fundraising is an extension of Series-A round for the Bengaluru-based startup. Existing investors such as PayU, Ribbit Capital and Omidyar Network also participated in it.

The company will use the risk capital to strengthen its technology and data science capabilities as well as expand use cases for the core ZestMoney Affordability Product, reports ET.

Founded in 2015 by Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman, ZestMoney uses artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to do risk profiling of e-commerce consumers who opt for EMI payment option and works with financial institutions to give loans to such consumers.

The company has partnered with leading e-commerce players such as Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong, Myntra, MakeMyTrip among others to offer such facilities.

Besides, ZestMoney is already working with Xiaomi to create the Mi Finance product to enable Mi customers to buy smartphones with a cardless EMI option.

The company claims to disburse more than 3 crore in a day and aims to reach a run rate of Rs 3,000 crore disbursals by December 2018.

Further, ZestMoney has been working with edtech startups such as UpGrad, Cuemath and plans to enter into travel and healthcare sector through flexible credit products.

Earlier this month, ZestMoney had acquired artificial- intelligence platform PhotographAI for an undisclosed amount.

In February 2017, the aforementioned existing investors had invested $6.5 million in Series A round of funding. previously it raised $1.7 million seed funding in October 2015.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi is also launching microcredit loan products through CreditBee especially for mid salaried class and students pursuing professional courses. 

Through the partnership with its KrazyBee, CredtBee will offer loan in the range of Rs 1,000 to 100K for a period of three months.