CredAvenue, a leading debt marketplace, on Wednesday raised $90 million in Series A equity funding round led by Sequoia Capital India and co-led by Lightspeed, TVS Capital Funds, Lightrock among others.
The equity funding, which also saw the participation of CRED and Stride Ventures as investors, values CredAvenue at approximately $410 million.
“CredAvenue’s goal is to transform debt markets by deepening access to capital for the growing enterprise sector to unlock significant economic growth. We are delighted to welcome the Series A investors to our journey. They will catalyse our mission with capital and guidance, to keep expanding our lead in this market,” Gaurav Kumar, Founder & CEO, Cred Avenue told BusinessLine.
Debt financing platforms
CredAvenue facilitates debt financing for enterprises by connecting lenders and investors with corporate borrowers through a digital platform.
Also see: CredAvenue facilitates ₹337.5-crore debenture issue from Spandana Sphoorty
Its offering includes a wide range of debt products under five platforms — CredLoan (loan platform); CredCoLend (co-lending platform for banks and NBFCs); Plutus (Bond Platform); CredSCF (Supply Chain & Trade Financing solutions) and CredPool (Pool Platform for end-to-end securitization and portfolio buyouts).
“CredAvenue’s platform can provide institutional investors access to larger liquidity pools at market-efficient rates and faster transaction times. The platform is facilitating larger participation of retail investors in the corporate debt market, which is driving financial inclusion in the fixed income category. We are convinced that CredAvenue can be the leader in this transformative journey of Indian debt markets,” Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman at TVS Capital Funds.
$9 billion throughput
Founded in 2020, CredAvenue has already facilitated more than $9 billion worth of transactions on its platform, on-boarding over 1,500 institutional borrowers and more than 750 investors touching over a million end retail borrowers.
“We are proud to share that over 45 per cent of the $9 billion throughput on the platform has come to enterprises which are A- and below,” Kumar said, adding, “Our platform stood the test of the times. The entire asset quality and how things have fared for investors has been simply outstanding. That is what made investors trust us more and more.”
Also see: Exotel raises $35 million in series C funding
“CredAvenue is a unique solution that not only simplifies access to credit for borrowers ranging from a BB to AA rating but also improves access to multiple debt products like bonds, supply chain financing, etc. We believe it has the opportunity to become the platform of choice for borrowers and lenders operating in the debt market,” Sakshi Chopra, MD, Sequoia India, said in a press release.
Expansion plans
The company is planning to use the current funding towards expanding product capabilities and ramping up the platform’s technology and data science infrastructure. The company aims to invest heavily in data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence over the next few months to significantly improve and expand its product offerings, across each of its sub-platforms.
The debt platform is also planning to double its head count to 700 by the end of FY22 besides looking at global expansion and inorganic growth through strategic acquisitions.
Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to CredAvenue on the transaction.
