Temasek fund leads $80m round of Indian lending firm

Kissht, an India-based payments and credit lending company, has raised US$80 million in a funding round led by Vertex Growth, a Singapore-based fund owned by Temasek Holdings, as well as Brunei Investment Agency.

Existing investors Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India and Endiya Partners also participated in the round.

Photo credit: 123RF

Kissht also announced its foray into credit-backed cards. It also launched a new brand called Ring, a credit and payments app that caters to underserved millennials.

There are over 150 million people, most of whom are young millennials, who are underserved on transaction credit, according to Kissht founder and CEO Ranvir Singh.

The company said that Ring’s customers can avail of a line of credit for up to 30,000 rupees (US$386.4) and pay for all expenses in one billing cycle at 0% interest.

The multiservice credit and payments offering will “revolutionize” the way millennials and other new borrowers use and think about credit, added James Lee, managing partner at Vertex Growth.

Kissht will use the fresh funds to build product offerings as it plans to issue 10 million cards over the next 12 to 18 months.

See also: A list of SEA’s soonicorns and their early backers

Currency converted from Indian rupee to US dollar: US$1 = 77.6 rupees.