Fintech platform BharatPe raises US$ 75 million in Series-C funding round

BharatPe, New-Delhi based fintech platform, has raised US$ 75 million in a Series-C funding round, according to the TechCrunch report.

The report added, the funding round of the start-up, which was co-founded by Mr Ashneer Grover and Mr Shashvat Nakrani in 2018, was led by New York-headquartered hedge fund Coatue Management and existing investor Ribbit Capital.

The other participants present in the round were VC firm Amplo and existing investors Steadview Capital and Insight Partners. The start-up is now valued at over US$ 400 million with the latest funding round and has raised US$ 140 million so far, the report said.

The platform offers help to the offline merchants in managing the digital payments. The fresh capital will be utilised to facilitate working capital for its merchant partners.

BharatPe intends to provide fund to its new merchants by helping them secure US$ 500 for a period of three months from the platform. The amount that can be secured by merchants has been increased to US$ 2,000 over the time.

So far, the start-up has a user base of over 30 lakh merchants across 30 Indian cities and targets to double the number by March 2021, the report said.

In January, BharatPe had announced its plans to hire over 75 engineers and project managers in 2020 to expand its technology team.

BharatPe has moved all of its communication with merchants to WhatsApp since February 1, in order to counter other similar platforms. The fintech platform announced plans to transfer all its communication related to transaction notifications, OTPs, day-end balances and loan balances to its WhatsApp contact number.

According to Mr Grover, the move towards WhatsApp was a strategic plan for BharatPe, as all other players, such as PayTM, PhonePe and GooglePay, will never move to WhatsApp.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.