Fintech startup ZestMoney raises $6.5 million in its Series A funding round led by PayU India supported by US-based existing investors Ribbit Capital and Omidyar Network.PayU has invested $3.7 Million into the startup for a 20% stake in the startup.
The Bangalore-Based startup was founded in June 2015 by Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma and Ashish Anantharaman. ZestMoney is owned by Camden Town Technologies Pvt. Ltd. The startup is India’s first completely automated consumer digital lending platform. Zest partners with e-commerce companies to enable financing at check-out, helping the merchants convert more customers, increase average order size and reduce cash collection cycles.
Currently, the company works with over 40 such e-commerce websites and has partnered with three financial institutions. The start has over 50 employees working for them at Bangalore office. In September 2015, the startup had raised seed funding of $2 million from Ribbit Capital and Omidyar Network. The total equity funding of ZestMoney is about $8.5 Million.
The CEO and Co-founder of ZestMoney, Lizzi Chapman said: “For the e-commerce industry to reach the size we all anticipate, Indian consumers need easy access to digital affordability solutions. Current payment methods are not built to drive high-value transactions and it is difficult for traditional lenders to offer instant, small ticket credit, on the checkout. ZestMoney has cracked a way to do that, using proprietary technology that merchants can implement in a matter of hours.”
On the investment, he said, “By partnering with us, a lot of these (financial) institutions who are trying to get into consumer durable loan segment are able to do so, without having to develop their own technology.”
The key reason for investments from PayU remains to be the growth of its financial services footprint across emerging markets like India.
Jitendra Gupta, Managing Director at PayU said: “ZestMoney has achieved good initial traction in providing credit to online shoppers and we are excited to partner with them… The investment of minority stake in ZestMoney is part of the larger vision of PayU’s credit portfolio strategy.”
ZestMoney will use their fresh funds in expanding their risk-engine, developing in-house technology and product development. Read more FinTech Startup news.
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