Fintech SaaS startup Lentra bags $60 Mn from Bessemer, SIG and Citi Ventures

Pune-based fintech SaaS startup Lentra has scooped up $60 million in a Series B round led by existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and the Susquehanna International Group (SIG) Venture Capital. Citi Ventures, a subsidiary of the New York-based investment banker Citigroup, also participated in it.

The funding will be used for products and platform enhancement and also for international expansion, including the USA, the company said in a statement. Currently, it operates in India, Singapore, and the Philippines.

As per the Pune-based company, it is now valued at over $400 million.

Besides Bessemer and SIG, Lentra is also backed by HDFC Bank which invested Rs 7 crore in the AI solutions company in 2019. Last week, HDFC said that it has executed an agreement to sell a 3.21% stake worth Rs 54.16 crore held in Lentra. As per the banking firm, this would be a partial divestment of the bank in the startup.

Lentra also added that it has demonstrated superior metrics on revenue retention and grown 20 fold since a $12 million Series A round in 2019.

Founded by D. Venkatesh and Ankur Handa, four-year-old Lentra is a lending platform designed and developed to empower banks with a fully digital ecosystem. For banks, it offers ready-to-use 3rd party API connectors to various data sources. It works with HDFC Bank, Federal Bank, Standard Chartered and IDFC First Bank, among others.

The company’s lending cloud services claims to cover more than 40 banks and processes over 3 million applications monthly. As of now, it has processed over 13 billion (1,300 crore) transactions and $21 billion worth of loans on its platform till date.

Lentra recorded a 60% jump in its operating revenue to Rs 71.53 crore in FY22 from Rs 44.72 crore in the previous fiscal year, according to the company’s annual financial statements. During the period, its losses surged over two fold to Rs 52 crore from Rs 24.7 crore. The company is targeting Rs 180 crore in revenue in FY23.

As of this year, Lentra’s annual consumption rate is up to $10 million, and it is projected to hit $100 million in 2024. ACR is the amount of revenue the company makes based on usage of its APIs.

In June, the company acquired Chennai-based artificial intelligence solutions company TheDataTeam for an undisclosed amount.