Rupeek raises $15 Mn from Elevation; readies for secondary

Online gold loan platform Rupeek has secured Rs 125 crore (approximately $15 million) in primary funding from Elevation Capital. This is the second tranche of the new round in which 360 One Large Fund had already put in $6 million during May.

The board at Rupeek has passed a special resolution to issue 5,801 compulsory convertible preference shares at an issue price of Rs 2,15,467 each to raise Rs 125 crore, its regulatory filing accessed from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) shows.

The Bengaluru-based firm appears to close this round at around Rs 250 crore, according to sources aware of the details of the funding. While Rupeek already raised Rs 175 crore ($21 million) from Elevation and 360 One Large Fund, the remaining Rs 75 crore ($9 million) is likely to come from Ranjan Pai’s investment office Claypond Capital, as per sources.

“Sumit Maniyar along with employees and Rupeek’s early backer Bertelsmann may dilute around $8-10 million worth shares to Claypond Capital,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity.

Queries sent to Maniyar didn’t elicit any response. 

The Binny Bansal-backed company has raised around $165 million to date. As per the startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, PeakXV was the largest external stakeholder followed by Accel and Bertelsmann as of the last tranche. 360 One Large Value Fund holds 2.44% of the firm before this tranche.

Rupeek, which provides gold loans, has been struggling to scale and faced 60% erosion in its value. The company’s peak valuation stood at $634 million in January 2022 but its worth nosedived to $250 million in the ongoing round. Entrackr was first to report Rupeek’s down-round.

The massive cut in valuation came on the back of Rupeek’s falling scale. Its revenue from operations declined 27.6% to Rs 89 crore in FY23 while the losses stood at Rs 281 crore in the same period. The company is yet to file its annual statements for FY24.

The Sumit Maniyar-led firm directly competes with Oro Money, Ruptok, Yellow Metal, and to some extent with PayU-backed Indiagold.