India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status

InCred said the round, billed as a Series D, “takes us into the ranks of unicorns,” but did not specify the valuation. As recently as July, local media had indicated the company was seeking funding at a valuation of USD 1.5bn.

InCred Financial is a lending unit of diversified financial services provider InCred Group, established in 2016 as Visu Leasing & Finance. It changed its name to InCred Financial in 2018 and raised at least USD 164m before merging last year with KKR-owned KIFS, a similar business that had struggled with bad loans.

Investors during this period included Investcorp, Alpha Capital Advisors, IDFC Alternatives Private Equity, Paragon Partners, Moore Strategic Ventures, Elevar Equity Advisors, and Dutch development finance institution FMO. They variously contributed to three rounds, culminating in an USD 86m investment in 2019, billed as a Series A.

InCred Financial’s core business is to provide personal, education, vehicle, home, and small business loans to customers that have difficulty accessing financing from India’s traditional banks. Like many of its peers, the company claims to leverage technology and data science to simplify the borrowing process and allow borrowers quick access to capital.

The company claims to have grown more than 50% over the past three years, with the loan book now exceeding INR 75bn. As of last March, assets under management amounted to INR 60.6bn. This compares to INR 38.4bn in March 2022 and INR 26.4bn in March 2021.

The fresh capital will be used to build out the consumer, student, and small business loan verticals, all three of which InCred said have experienced strong growth. India’s student loan market, for example, is said to have surged on the back of a doubling in US student visa issued in the past two years. Meanwhile, small business lending is seen as enjoying a bounce in the secured loan-against-property segment.

“With our risk first approach, cutting-edge technology, and class-leading management team, we are well positioned for sustained growth in the business over the years to come,” Bhupinder Singh, InCred Financial’s founder and CEO said in a statement.

“Our goal is to make InCred a central part of every Indian family's financial aspirations, in line with the powerful growth seen by the Indian economy, and to eventually list the business unlocking significant value for all our shareholders."

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• South Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Expansion
• India
• NBFCs
• Financial Services
• Fintech