P2P Lending Startup Cashkumar Raises Rs 5 Cr on LetsVenture

Cashkumar, the peer to peer lending platform based out of Bangalore, has closed a pre-series A round of Rs 5 crores. This is the first fundraise for the bootstrapped company which was a part of the 2015 Google LaunchPad cohort, a Start-Up Chile alumni in 2014 and also selected for the UKTI’s Tech Rocketships award in 2017. The raise was one of the quickest facilitated by LetsVenture through its LetsIgnite event, which introduced Cashkumar to their investor community.

The company will utilize the funds to meet regulatory norms, start paid marketing campaigns and expand operations from the current 6 to 20 cities. With the RBI releasing regulations for P2P lending in India, the sector has been in the news with investors betting on the long-term value proposition of the sector. Cashkumar claims a distinctive business model which ensures loans are funded quickly with faster turnaround of funds making it attractive for lenders. 

The company has disbursed over 1000 loans to date with the value of disbursal amounting to over Rs. 5 crores.

Investors participating in this round include Mohan Kumar, Executive Director of Norwest Ventures, and Vishal Sampat, who was the founder of Convonix and the Chief Digital Officer for Reliance Jio. 

Speaking about the investment Vishal added that “A good sign to invest is when a company is operational and growing business without significant infusion of funds. The team at Cashkumar has built it from the ground up covering all aspects of business and technology through internal capabilities. They were open to advice and have a long-term vision which was a sign that it was an ideal investment opportunity.”

Dhiren Makhija, Co-founder & Director, Cashkumar explaining the business said, “Our pragmatic approach to business and understanding of the customer life cycle has helped gain good traction with almost zero marketing spend. We are focused towards the salaried segment, ideally for loan amounts between 20,000 to 1 lakh and tenure upto a year. With a flat interest rate ranging between 1.5% to 2.5 % per month, we have seen borrowers get access to private funds while ensuring better returns for our lenders. Investment decisions on the platform are based on credit analysis of a borrower spread across 100+ data points.”

Shanti Mohan, CEO of LetsVenture commented on the development said, “CashKumar has a great team with the acumen and drive to think through the problems of P2P lending. LetsVenture got CashKumar validated from the stalwarts of Indian Fintech in terms of technology. The platform is very intuitive, process oriented and team has a proven recipe to get the underwriting (risk) and collection mix right.”

Cashkumar expects an infusion in marketing to significantly boost organic and inorganic demand. The target with this round is to increase business 8 fold by the end of the year.

Just yesterday, P2P lending platform, Faircent.com has announced that it has received its NBFC-P2P certification from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The accreditation makes Faircent.com the first P2P lending platform in the country to receive the certificate of registration as an NBFC-P2P by the national regulator. 

The other Indian players operating in the P2P lending space are LendBox, LenDenClub, LoanBaba, i2iFunding, IndiaMoneyMart, PaisaDukan, Finzy, Monexo, CapZest and Rupaiya Exchange.

Digital payments giant Paytm is also trying to enter the lending space and is seeking a licence from RBI to become a peer-to-peer lending platform.