Kul Bhushan · · 2 min readStride Ventures founder’s fintech firm raises $33m
StrideOne, an India-based fintech platform, has raised 2.5 billion rupees (US$33.2 million) in funding – a mix of equity and debt – from Elevar Equity and a few local banks.
StrideOne co-founders (from left) Abhinav Suri and Ishpreet Singh Gandhi / Photo credit: StrideOne
The firm was founded six months ago by Ishpreet Singh Gandhi and Abhinav Suri. Gandhi is the founder and managing partner at Stride Ventures, a venture debt firm in India that has backed firms such as Zetwerk, Infra.Market, Spinny, and CredAvenue. Suri is also a managing partner at Stride Ventures. He has previously worked with firms such as GE Capital and Citi Bank.
StrideOne focuses on providing financial services, including credit, to MSMEs and supply chain partners for startups. The firm also holds a non-banking finance company (NBFC) license, which allows it to disburse loans.
The ticket size for individual borrowing on its platform can range from nearly US$128 to as high as US$258,000, its founders told Tech in Asia.
Within its six months of operations, StrideOne has made already its first acquisition – EzCred, a five-year-old consumer lending platform. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The fintech firm has plans to make other acquisitions this year.
In addition to the fundraising, StrideOne also disclosed that it has become profitable with assets under management of US$25 million across more than 20 startups. Gandhi attributed the company’s profits to factors such as “strong” unit economics and low cost of acquisition and underwriting.
See also: How Polygon puts India at the heart of the crypto world
Following the fundraising, StrideOne hopes to further amplify the number of borrowers from the current 1,000 in the near future. The company is also aiming to increase its headcount by 3x to 4x from the current 20 in the next three quarters.
Other near-term objectives include strengthening product capabilities, onboarding more new companies, and further exploring inorganic growth routes.
“We started with supply chain finance, but the idea is not limited to just lending products, and we are working on that,” the founders added.
Currency converted from Indian rupee to US dollar: US$1 = 77.67 rupees.
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Lorenzo Kyle Subido
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