In India, Digital Payments Firms, Digital Lenders Grab VC Dollars

FinTech investment in India proceeds apace through the last few weeks of the year, with funding rounds extended to digital payments firms and digital lenders.

To that end, the total invested, year to date and as tracked by PYMNTS, stands at a bit more than $4.5 billion USD equivalent. Drilling down into the numbers a bit, the logistics space accounted for a bit more than $1.1 billion of that tally, followed by supplier/buyer exchanges at $920 million, while eCommerce investments came in third on the list at nearly $694 million.

PhonePe

As reported in entrackr.com, the digital payments firm PhonePe has received Rs 405, the equivalent of about $57 million USD, in a third round of funding from parent firm PhonePe Pvt Ltd, which was formerly known as Flipkart Payments. As the site reported, the company received other funding rounds from the Singapore-based firm to the tune of 698 crore in July and 743 crore in March. The latest funding rounds value the firm at a reported $1.6 billion USD, and will be slated to help fund future growth.

In past months, the company had reported to be in talks with Tencent and Tiger Global for $1 billion in funding at a valuation round of about $8 billion.  The company has seen more than 343 million transactions, monthly, in August.

RupeeReDee

Separately, the digital lending platform RupeeRedee has garnered $6 million in funding from its own parent company, Digital Finance International.

As reported by IBS Intelligence, the company uses data science to extend loans. In a statement, Jitin Bhasin, managing director of RupeeRedee, said, “There are millions of salaried as well as self-employed borrowers in the country who need financial assistance but most lenders in India remain reluctant to aide them in the absence of strong credit histories, thus leaving large masses underserved. We are here to help this segment of people get easy access to flexible, small-ticket loans backed by a transparent fee structure.”

The company has said that it has more than 1 million visitors monthly across its digital offerings. The funding, according to reports, will be used in part to expand point of sale offerings.

UrbanPiper

UrbanPiper, which offers an online platform focused on restaurants, has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round that was led by Tiger Global and Sequoia India.

The firm said it will use the funding to expand it team and grow internationally.

The firm’s offerings integrate interactions between restaurants’ food delivery partners and restaurant point-of-sale (POS) systems. The platform helps restaurants automate their online presence across channels, according to yourstory.com.  Customers include Pizza Hut and McDonalds, among others.

True Balance

The South Korean startup True Balance said last month that it raised $23 million through a series C funding round. According to reports, a series of South Korean investors participated in the funding, including NH Investment & Securities, IBK Capital, SB Partners and others.

The financial services app featured by True Balance has more than 60 million users in smaller towns and cities across India, and has logged 300,000 transactions digital transactions daily across the app.