India fintech player Lentra gets $60m Series B

Citi Ventures also participated, making its first fintech investment in India. Bessemer and SIG provided a Series A of undisclosed size in 2020. The new capital will be used in part for an international expansion, including across Asia and in the US.

Lentra describes itself as one of the fastest-growing enterprise software-as-a-service (Saas) providers in India, where it has more than 50 clients. The is said to have grown 20x since 2019, with SIG citing “superior metrics on revenue retention.”

The company provides a lending platform for banks, non-banking financial companies, and fintech lenders with software touted as covering every step of the digital lending lifecycle, from compliance to origination and collection.

There is a strong focus on retail services such as in-store financing and a monthly instalment offering from businesses such as car dealerships. A high-speed loan approval process is core to the approach, with artificial intelligence and blockchain a key part of the technology mix.

There are three main products: MultiBureau, a tool that aggregates data from all credit bureaus; BREx, a business rule engine that allows banks to customise their lending protocols; and GoNoGo, an end-to-end credit decision-making platform.

According to Bessemer, one of India’s largest private banks uses this suite to process all of its consumer durable loans without any human intervention in the underwriting process, which has led to significant growth in volume over the last few years.

“The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift of in-person lending to digital, and the widespread adoption of cloud has set the stage for digital lending SaaS solutions,” Vishal Gupta, a partner at Bessemer, and Anurag Begwani, an investor at Bessemer, said in a statement.

“It’s especially promising that Lentra is based in India, where the SaaS market continues to accelerate and where the fintech sector is expected to process USD 1trn by 2030. As fintech companies increasingly offer more flexible and customer-friendly products, banks and lenders have sought to keep up and follow suit. Lentra sits right in the middle of this storm.”

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Early-stage
• India
• Bessemer Venture Partners
• SIG
• Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI)
• Financial Services
• Fintech