Nykaa founder’s family office invests $20m in Indian fintech startup FlexiLoans

Indian fintech startup FlexiLoans said it has raised US$20.3 million in a mix of equity and debt from the Falguni and Sanjay Nayar Family Office – the investment arm of KKR India partner and CEO Sanjay Nayar and Falguni Nayar – founder and CEO of cosmetics and beauty ecommerce firm Nykaa.

This brings the company’s total funds raised to almost US$68 million since 2016, according to a statement.

The founding team at FlexiLoans / Photo credit: FlexiLoans

FlexiLoans plans to use the new funds to scale up its lending platform and help with the launch of new products through partnerships that will be announced later this quarter.

Based in Mumbai, the digital lending platform gives small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) quick access to growth capital. Its platform, using its proprietary engine, generates unique scores based on each lender’s profile.

The company claims that over the last four years, it has disbursed more than 30,000 unsecured loans worth over US$108 million in 1,400 cities across India.

KKR’s Sanjay previously invested in FlexiLoans’ US$15 million round in 2016, alongside Vikram Sud, former head of operations at Citibank, and Narayan Seshadri, former head of KPMG’s advisory business. The three backers also formed a non-banking finance company, Epimoney, which has taken a stake in FlexiLoans.

Lendingkart, Paysense, Biz2Credit, and Capital Float are some of the players that FlexiLoans will have to go up against in the industry. Another competitor is Bengaluru-based MoneyTap, which raised US$70 million in its series B round earlier this year from Aquiline Technology Growth, RTP Global, and Sequoia Capital India, among others.