Goldman Sachs leads $15 Mn extended Series B round in ZestMoney

ZestMoney has raised $15 million in extended Series B round led by Goldman Sachs. Existing investors Naspers Fintech, Quona Capital, and Omidyar Network also participated in it. The point-of-sale consumer finance startup had raised $20 million in Series B funding round led by US-based Quona Capital in April, this year.

The company will deploy the fresh capital to accelerate product development, grow its strategic partnerships and to scale the platform.

ZestMoney has built a technology platform to provide credit to people who have limited access to credit cards or any other formal financing options because of insufficient credit history.

With more than six million registered customers in India, ZestMoney has become one of the leading provider EMI financing. The firm has partnered with 3,000 merchants, including Flipkart, Myntra, MMT, ClearTrip, Paytm and Amazon, to offer financing options at point-of-sale.

ZestMoney is already working with existing investors Xiaomi to enable Mi Finance product available for Mi customers to buy smartphones with a cardless EMI option.

The four year-old-startup launched by Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman, expects to cross an annual run rate of over $1 billion in disbursal run rate in less than 18 months.

While several media houses have reported the development, TechCrunch has mentioned that the firm raised $15 million in fresh financing round.

Only a week ago, ZestMoney had formed a strategic financial partnership with Northern Arc Capital. To address the growing demand for EMI financing in India, the NBFC has deployed $14 million in the startup and plans to fund its products in a phased manner.

Apart from leading startups in this segment, ZestMoney will have a competition with leading e-commerce firm - Flipkart, Amazon, and Paytm, which are also entering the EMI credit facility space.