Indiagold, a gold-centric lending startup, has scooped up $12 million in its Series A round led by Prosus-owned PayU and Alpha Wave Incubation. Better Tomorrow Ventures, 3one4 Capital, Rainmatter Capital and Leo Capital also participated in the round.
The company, which operates in NCR, will expand its offerings to around 10 cities by the end of the financial year.
While the company did not disclose its valuation in the current round, sources aware of the matter pegged it around $45-50 million.
Unique model among peers
Where gold loans has been championed by traditional brick and mortar players including Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance, new-age startups such as Rupeek have been creating ripples in the gold loan market. The entry of Indiagold has made the competition more intense as the 15 month-old startup offers loans against digital gold as well.
In a nutshell, the company provides loans against physical as well as digital gold through its locker service. Moreover, consumers have an option of insurance cover for their lockers.
The Paytm Connection
Founded by two former Paytm executives Deepak Abbot and Nitin Mishra, Indiagold provides locker services where customers can store and earn 5-6% interest annually on the value of their gold deposit. Moreover, consumers can also take up to Rs 60,000 loan against digital gold kept in its locker.
So far, Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe are some of the other leading players in the digital gold-selling space in India. According to Entrackr’s sources, these companies may partner with Indiagold for enabling loans against digital gold.
More funds for Indiagold
This is the second funding round for the Gurugram-based startup in 2021 which raised its $2 million seed round in February from Leo Capital, Blume Founders Fund, Sequoia Scout and angels including Kunal Shah, Amrish Rau, Kunal Bahl, Ashneer Grover, Miten Sampat, Ramakant Sharma and Sandeep Tandon.
According to Entrackr’s sources, lead investors of the current round i.e. PayU and AWI are likely to invest $10 million more at around $75 million valuation.
