In a Series D round led by existing investor Coatue Management, Indian financial services company BharatPe has secured $108 million in new funding. The investment, which also included participation from all of the firm’s current institutional investors, boosts the company’s total to $268 million and gives BharatPe a valuation of $900 million.
The company highlighted that the oversubscribed round in its statement was “one of the fastest round closures for any startup in India.” But the company’s co-founder and CEO Ashneer Grover was quick to underscore what part of the news deserved the most attention. “We, at BharatPe, do not celebrate fund raises – it is akin to procuring raw material. We are super excited though to have returned INR 125 crores of capital to angels and all ESOP holders, earning them one of the highest returns on investment.”
Grover added that the company has experienced 5x growth in its payments business and 10x growth in its lending business in the last 12 months. “This growth reiterates the trust that the small merchants and kirana store owners have showed in us.” He said BharatPe remains committed to the goal of building “India’s largest B2B financial services company” and a “one-stop destination for small merchants.”
Founded in 2018, BharatPe was launched to bring better financing and payments services to Indian SMEs. The company was the first to offer a UPI interoperable QR code, first to offer a ZERO MDR payment acceptance service, and first to provide a UPI payment backed merchant cash advance service. More than five million merchants rely on BharatPe’s platform, which handles an annualized total payment volume of $7 billion.
For this week’s FinovateGlobal Reports, we turn to a 2021 forecast of fintech in the Middle East published by Finextra earlier this month. The report features contributions from a number of sources, including S&P Global, Findexable and its Global Fintech Index, the WEF Global Competitive Report, as well as a 2019 analyst overview published by Clifford Chance, Fintech in the Middle East – Developments Across MENA.
“Fintech continues to transform the delivery of financial services across the region and remains high on the agenda of industry participants and governments seeking to develop and modernize and, for GCC governments, to diversity from natural resources,” the report noted. Among the key takeaways on a region that (according to Accenture) is expected to see its fintech market grow to $2.5 billion in value by 2022 are:
- Public and public institutions are helping reinforce a “collaborative approach to fintech.”
- Regional leadership in fintech remains seated in the UAE “both in respect of the number of participants and forward-thinking approaches.”
- Wariness toward cryptocurrencies and digital assets remains even as some regions, such as Dubai, have begun to “embrace blockchain” technology.
- Embedded fintech products into governmental services and banking have improved efficiencies and increased opportunities for fintech innovation.
Read the full report.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- Cowrywise, a wealth management startup based in Nigeria, raised $3 million in pre-Series A funding in a round led by Quona Capital.
- Private share and debt trading platform Globacap secured $9 million Series A extension courtesy of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
- Is fintech innovation in Kenya outpacing the ability of consumers and businesses to take advantage of the technology safely? African Business looked into the country’s “fintech revolution.”
Central and Eastern Europe
- Germany’s Mambu partnered with Norway’s Signicat to expand digital identity management options for businesses across Europe.
- Klarna launched its new bank account offering in Germany.
- BasisBank, headquartered in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, announced a partnership with Backbase to support its digital transformation.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- UNIPaaS, a payments solution provider for digital marketplaces and B2B SaaS companies based in Israel, raised $10 million in seed funding.
- Vodafone Qatar teamed up with Commercial Bank to launch its own Buy Now Pay Later installment payment offering.
- SadaPay, an online money management platform based in Pakistan, teams up with Mastercard to launch numberless, contactless cards in the MENA region.
Central and Southern Asia
- Indian fintech and financial services corporation BharatPe scored $108 million in Series D funding.
- Azimo partnered with commercial bank HBL to bring its cross border money transfer service to Pakistan.
- Paytm unveils new feature, Rent Payments, for its instant money transfer solution.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Spreedly partnered with Visa to boost network tokenization in Latin America via its Payments Orchestration solution.
- Mexican based telecommunications company, AT&T México, launched its AT&T ReMo e-wallet.
- Spanish fintech software provider Latinia announced investment in Colombia-based microlender Ábaco.
Asia-Pacific
- PYMNTS.com profiled Indonesian rideshare and digital payments company Gojek and its plans for expansion throughout Southeast Asia.
- Philippine fintech Ayannah announced plans to raise Series B funding to support growth in Vietnam and India.
- Courtesy of a Shariah-compliant crowdfunding platform Ethis Malaysia, Global Sadaqah raises $111,000 (RM450,000) for its Islamic social finance solution.
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