Creation leads $25m Series B for India's Capital Float

Existing investors SAIF Partners, Sequoia India, and Aspada Advisors also participated in the round, according to a statement. The three previously committed $13 million in Series A funding in February 2015. The Series B round brings Capital Float's total equity capital raised to $42 million.

Capital Float will use the proceeds of the new round to expand its lending footprint and its geographical reach; the company hopes to grow to 20,000 SMEs in 100 cities. It also plans to introduce new financial products and improve its lending marketplace, which allows multiple lenders to compete for SME customers.

Since its founding in 2013, Capital Float has originated INR4 billion ($60 million) in loans to Indian SMEs, claiming 20-fold growth in the last year. The company partners with leading players in underserved sectors to aggregate loans for entrepreneurs; its partners include Snapdeal and Paytm in the B2C e-commerce sector, Uber in transportation, and mSwipe in payments.

"SME lending represents a very large, underserved, and growing market opportunity in India," said Patrick Fisher, managing partner and founder at Creation. "By leveraging technology, Capital Float has built a differentiated model that is able to deliver credit to the smallest of businesses in a scalable and efficient manner."

Creation provides growth capital to financial services companies worldwide. Its portfolio in India includes microfinance institutions Sonata Finance, for which it led a INR350 million Series D round in 2012, and Equitas Holdings, to which it committed $5.6 million in 2014. Creation made a partial exit from Equitas in the company's IPO earlier this year.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Expansion
• Venture
• India
• TMT
• Financial Services