Update: Digital lending startup Fibe has raised $90 million in a Series E round led by TR Capital, Trifecta Capital and Amara Partners. Its existing investors TPG Rise Fund, Norwest Venture Partners, Eight Roads Ventures and Chiratae Ventures also participated in the round which included both primary and secondary transactions.
Original story follows:
Digital lending platform Fibe (formerly EarlySalary) has raised Rs 547 crore or $66 million in Series E round led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and Kabira Holdings. This is the first round of investments for the Pune-based company in the past two years.
The board at Fibe has passed a special resolution to issue 5,46,75,600 Series E CCPS at an issue price of Rs 100 each to raise Rs 547 crore, its regulatory filing accessed from the RoC shows.
The Rise Fund led the round with Rs 133 crore ($16 million) while Kabira Holdings put in Rs 125 crore ($15 million). Eight Road Ventures, Norwest Capital, and Trifecta participated with Rs 41.6 crore ($5 million), Rs 62.5 crore ($7.5 million) and Rs 55 crore ($6.6 million), respectively.
Amara Partners and Chirate also invested Rs 29.17 crore and Rs 100 crore. According to filings, the company will use these funds for expansion and growth as per the business plan duly adopted by the board.
As per TheKredible’s estimates, the company has been valued at around $590-600 million post-money. It was valued at $350 million during Series D.
Following the fresh proceeds, TPG’s The Rise Fund holds 22.72% stake while Eight Road Ventures, Norwest Capital, Chiratae Ventures, and Kabira Holding will be settled at around 15.8%, 13.58%, 9.59%, and 6.01%, respectively.
Founded in 2015 by Akshay Mehrotra and Ashish Goyal, Fibe offers personal loan and impact loan in categories like healthcare loans, edtech loans, insurance financing, and school fee financing, among others. The brand also recently launched India’s first numberless co-branded credit card.
The company claims to have disbursed more than 6 million loans worth Rs 20,000 crore.
Fibe had raised $110 million in its Series D round led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and Norwest Venture Partners in August last year. The consumer lending firm has raised more than $200 million to date.
Fibe managed to grow its operating revenue by 2.3X in the fiscal year ending March 2023 and its profit grew over 9X in the same period. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, its operating collection stood at Rs 414 crore in FY23. Meanwhile, the firm’s profit spiked to Rs 36 crore.
Fibe directly competes with Slice, LoanTap, PaySense, MoneyTap, and IndiaLends among a few other consumer lending firms.
Update: The headline and story have been updated to add more information from Fibe’s official press release.
