Peer-to-peer lending startup LenDenClub has raised $1 million (Rs 7.2 crore) in a pre-series A funding round, led by existing investor Artha Venture Fund.
Several family offices like the UAE-based Transworld Group participated in the round, along with angel investors like Health and Glow director Shuchi Kothari, Livspace cofounder Ramakant Sharma, Narendra Karnavat and others.
This is the follow-up of a Rs 4.5 crore seed round the Mumbai-based startup had done in 2018, after receiving the P2P NBFC lending licence from the Reserve Bank of India.
“We will use the funds for product enhancement, as we see more lenders and borrowers coming on to the platform; second, we also want to hire a product team to help us expand geographically into new areas,” said Bhavin Patel, chief executive officer, LenDenClub.
The platform, which started in 2016, is processing more than 150 loans per day and caters to customers across six states. As per the latest numbers shared by the company, there were 23,000 registered lenders with 4,000 monthly active ones. There are around 2 lakh registered borrowers on the platform.
“We are doing around 5,000 loans per month with an average lending amount per lender per borrower at Rs 1,000,” said Patel. The startup claims to offer salaried individuals loans within 24 hours, catering to the needs of the section not served by the non-banking sector.
With a sub 4% non-performing asset base on its current loan book, Patel said that he wants to create a collections team dedicated for the new states he wants to expand to, and then open the lending tap. His team of 90 people largely sits out of Mumbai, but caters to customers from all the states the company operates in.
