Lighthouse Canton leads debt round in LoanTap

Digital loan platform LoanTap has raised Rs 24 crore ($2.9 million) from global investment institution Lighthouse Canton.

As part of the funding, LoanTap has received one of the first cheques for its digital lending platform LTFLoW. According to the company, Lighthouse Canton has invested Rs 15 crore while the names of other investors participating in the round remained undisclosed.

Founded by Satyam Kumar and Vikas Kumar, LoanTap offers loans and overdraft products to salaried professionals as well as credit solutions to micro small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in personal finance, supply chain invoice financing and electric two-wheeler segments. 

The Pune-based startup has over 10 clients including some of India's major banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), payment platforms, and ERP solution providers catering to roughly 2 million micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

LoanTap offers loans ranging between Rs 50,000 and Rs 10 lakh with an annual interest of 15-24%. It claims to have facilitated loans worth Rs 1,700 crore for its subsidiaries and technology clients and has two RBI-registered NBFCs subsidiaries.

The firm has raised around $24 million to date including a $10 million Series B round in September 2019. It competes with Paysense and Fibe (erstwhile EarlySalary) and MoneyTap.

As per media reports, the Indian government has started the process of blocking 138 betting and 94 loan apps with China links for their alleged involvement in money laundering and posing threat to India’s financial security. Besides China-linked apps, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has also blocked India’s loan apps LazyPay and Kissht.