Indian digital lender Kissht brings in $30m funding
Digital lending start-up Kissht, whose parent company is OnEMI Technology Solutions, has completed a $30 million Series C funding round led by Vertex Ventures and Sistema Asia Fund.
Existing investors Fosun RZ Capital, Ventureast and Endiya Partners also participated in the round.
The aim of this funding it to expand its network of offline and online merchants, deepen its presence across categories, and enhance its data and analytics capabilities. The company also has plans to launch its own credit card.
Krishnan Vishwanathan, who founded Kissht in 2015, already said in February it was looking to raise between $25-30 million.
The firm providers collateral-free loans for products such as mobiles, laptops, jewellery, furniture and electronic gadgets. Customers can repay through equated monthly instalments (EMIs) with the Kissht EMI card.
The company utilises data-centric algorithms to underwrite loans for the new-to-credit and excluded segments while minimising risk. Kissht claims it disburses over $8 million of loans every month.
Investment banking firm Investec India advised Kissht on the transaction.
Kissht is based in Mumbai and has 160 employees. It reaches customers through about 50 portals and 3,500 offline points of sale and offers loans across categories such as consumer durables, electronics, health, alternative energy and education.
Kissht managed to raise $10 million last November from investors led by China’s Fosun International, following another $2 million round in June from Endiya and Ventureast.
