$350m Tiger Global-led round puts Indian fintech firm BharatPe in unicorn club

Fintech firm BharatPe has become India’s newest unicorn after its US$350 million series E round, which was led by Tiger Global, took its valuation to over US$2.8 billion.

Existing investors Coatue Management, Insight Partners, Sequoia Growth, Ribbit Capital, and Amplo returned for the latest round. They were joined by new backers Dragoneer Investment Group and Steadfast Capital.

Ashneer Grover, co-founder and managing director of BharatPe / Photo credit: BharatPe

Founded in 2018, BharatPe makes point-of-sale transactions easier for merchants with the help of a unified QR code that accepts payments from any app. The company has also launched a low-cost zero merchant discount rate payment service and card-based offerings and facilitates loan disbursements to merchants.

“We now have US$500 million cash on books and are extremely well capitalized to deliver on our mandate to build India’s first truly digital bank,” Ashneer Grover, co-founder and managing director of BharatPe, said in a statement.

The firm will continue to focus on lending as its core business and primarily target small merchants, he added.

Suhail Sameer, who is taking over Grover’s former position as BharatPe’s CEO, said that the firm aims to scale tenfold following the funding boost.

Recently, BharatPe acquired loyalty program firm Payback India for an undisclosed sum. It also conducted six rounds of debt financing this year, with a US$6.8 million round from Northern Arc Capital being the latest one.