BharatPe Lands $50M, Connects SMB Merchants With Suppliers

Four months after announcing a $15.5 million fundraise, India-based FinTech BharatPe revealed new funding for its solution aimed at small businesses.

TechCrunch reported Monday (Aug. 26) that the company raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Ribbit Capital, based in San Francisco, and Steadview Capital, based in London. BharatPe offers small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) a payment processing solution designed to help firms accept electronic payments; the solution is integrated with a working capital offering to help business users manage cash flow.

Existing backers Sequoia Capital, Beenext Capital and Insight Partners also participated in the round, reports noted, adding that the Series B funding now places BharatPe’s valuation at $225 million.

An unnamed source told the publication that Google and Amazon were in advanced talks with Bharat Pe to invest in the Series B round, though the FinTech’s founders decided not to further dilute their shares in the firm.

To date, BharatPe says more than 1.5 million SMBs use its platform, which processes more than 21 million transactions per month.

Its lending operations connect small businesses with about $500 million in financing over a three-month period, with the company planning to expand that funding amount to $2000. Reports said that this small business lending operation is key to BharatPe’s profitability.

“There is no money to be made in doing payments in India,” said BharatPe Co-Founder and CEO Ashneer Grover in an interview with the publication, adding that the interest on SMB loans is the main revenue generator for the firm.

With the new funding, BharatPe will look to add 3.5 million new merchants to its platform over the coming year, with a portion of the funding to be set aside to finance small business loans.

In addition to the new funding, BharatPe announced later the same day that it is rolling out a new B2B service to connect its SMB users with their suppliers.