Consumer-centric digital lending startup ZestMoney has raised $20 million in Series B funding round led by US-based Quona Capital. While Australian fintech investor Reinventure cames as a new investor, existing backers Ribbit Capital, Omidyar Network and PayU also participated in the round.
The Bengaluru-based startup will deploy the latest proceeds towards ramping up technology including AI for credit assessment, developing voice-based communication and facial recognition technologies to onboard more customers on the platform.
ZestMoney is also expanding its business overseas particularly in the Southeast Asian region. It has already opened an office in Singapore. Besides, a significant portion of the capital will be used for doubling the employee strength.
The four-year-old firm offers small ticket size loan to consumers and helps them build their credit profile. It 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 and NBFCs to give loans to such consumers.
So far, it has partnered with over 800 merchants, including Flipkart, Myntra, MMT, ClearTrip, and Amazon, to offer financing options at point-of-sale.
ZestMoney is already working with Xiaomi to create the Mi Finance product to enable Mi customers to buy smartphones with a cardless EMI option. To recall, Xiaomi is also an investor in ZestMoney that had led $13.4 million extended Series A round in August 2018.
Further, ZestMoney has been working with edtech startups such as UpGrad, Cuemath and plans to enter into the travel and healthcare sector through flexible credit products.
Founded by Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman, ZestMoney has raised over $42 million and counted amongst one of the leading players in consumer lending space.
Apart from growing startups, ZestMoney will have a tough competition in the future given that Flipkart, Amazon, and Paytm are also entering the segment.
The development was reported by TechCrunch.
