Fin-tech startup Ftcash raises Series A funding
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Fin-tech startup Ftcash raises Series A funding

By Joseph Rai

  • 03 May 2019
Fin-tech startup Ftcash raises Series A funding
Credit: 123RF.com

Mumbai-based Nomisma Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which owns digital payments and loans platform Ftcash, said on Friday it has raised Rs 50 crore ($7.1 million) in a Series A round of funding led by US non-profit firm Accion International and Dutch development bank FMO.

Previous investor IvyCap Ventures also participated in the funding round, said Ftcash in a statement.

News of the development comes a day after a person in the know told VCCircle that FMO has committed an undisclosed amount to Ftcash.This is the second fin-tech bet by FMO in India. In 2013, it backed Mumbai-based Electronic Payment and Services Pvt. Ltd.

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Ftcash will use the funds for expansion into new geographies and product development.

Ftcash, which was incubated by online payments company PayPal Holdings Inc., primarily serves micro-merchants, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), home-based entrepreneurs and mom-and-pop stores by facilitating both payments and loans. To create an open platform for merchants, Ftcash aggregates payment methods including credit and debit cards, netbanking, mobile wallets, state-backed payments system Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and PayPal. The company also allows merchants to repay loans directly through the platform.

Sanjeev Chandak, co-founder and chief executive, Ftcash, said, "By using transaction data for credit assessment and leveraging repayments from the Ftcash payments platform, Ftcash is pioneering a model that can reach 60 plus million micro-merchants in India, 96% of whom have been underserved by banks and traditional finance companies."

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Ftcash was co-founded in 2015 by Chandak, Wharton Business School alumnus, IIT-Kharagpur graduate and former deputy finance chief of Deutsche Bank India; Deepak Kothari, a chartered accountant who has worked with KPMG and Grant Thornton; and Vaibhav Lodha, who has earlier worked with Lodha Group and Xprize.

In 2017, Ftcash raised its pre-Series A round of undisclosed funding from Silicon Valley-based early-stage venture fund 500 Startups and previous investor IvyCap Ventures.

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Accion has been present in India since 2005. Its portfolio companies in the country include Hyderabad-based fintech startup CredRight and Chennai-based online credit management startup CreditMantri. 

Earlier this year, Accion's seed-stage social-impact investor arm Accion Venture Lab exited its four-year investment in non-banking financial company (NBFC) Aye Finance.

Dutch investor FMO has a committed portfolio of 9.2 billion euros in 85 countries. It finances projects in sectors such as agri-business, food and water, energy and financial institutions in under-served regions.

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The development financial institution is an active investor in India. Earlier this week, it led a Series A round in InCred Financial Services Ltd. News of the development came more than two months after VCCircle first reported that FMO had committed Rs 256 crore (around $36 million then) to the NBFC, which is backed by private equity firms and former Deutsche Bank co-chief executive Anshu Jain.

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