Online gold loan platform Rupeek has raked in $30 million funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments.
The funding round, which reportedly will be completed in two tranches, witnessed the participation of existing investors Accel and Sequoia India. The company will deploy funds for product development and expand across new markets.
Before, the company had raised $12 million from Accel India, and financial inclusion focused investment firm Lok Capital in 2017. Founded in 2015, the company provides personalized support, on-demand pickup and return of the valuables on gold products.
Sequoia also invested $2 million in the company in 2017. Besides, it had raised capital from angels such as Anand Chandrasekaran, Anupam Mittal, Kunal Shah and Ravi Garikipati.
This Bengaluru-based entity claims to bring in transparency in the lending space and safeguard retail investor interest at all costs.
Rupeek has its centres from where the customer can pledge gold. The loan can be used for general purposes as well as for medical and other purposes. It accepts only gold jewellery and does not take gold coins or bars as a pledging asset.
Rupeek provides two programmes – Regular E-pay plus (monthly interest rate) and No Tension Plus (fixed interest rate). It’s also planning to use its proprietary hardware make absolute fairness, scalability and standardization in gold purity valuation.
Currently, the firm is operational in eight cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune and Hyderabad.
At present, the gold-loan space is dominated by older NBFCs such as Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance, which have been backed by marquee investors WestBridge Capital Partners, India Equity Partners, Baring Private Equity Asia, GIC and several others.
Rupeek competes with the companies as mentioned above and a few others.
ET first reported this development.
