BharatPe Raises Rs 50 Crore From Northern Arc

BharatPe, the financial services company for merchants, on Monday announced it has raised Rs 50 crore ($7 million) in debt from Northern Arc Capital, one of India’s leading digital debt finance platforms that is focused on improving access to finance for under-served businesses and individuals in India. This is the sixth round of debt financing for BharatPe in the year 2021. In January this year, the company had raised Rs 200 crore ($26 million) from three top debt companies in the country — Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital and Trifecta Capital — and later raised additional capital from ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

Through the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, BharatPe has continued to support credit requirements of its merchant partners, and has emerged as one of the largest B2B fintech lenders in the country. Having already facilitated disbursals of over Rs 1,600 crore ($230 million) to more than 2 lakh merchants since the launch of the lending vertical, BharatPe aims to disburse Rs 14,000 crore ($2 billion) in business loans by March 2023.

Northern Arc has been at the forefront of fighting the economic and social impact of the pandemic. It has directly disbursed over Rs 3,500 crore ($500 million) over the last financial year to MSMEs, households, financial institutions and mid market corporates. It has also enabled flow of financing of over Rs 1,000 crore ($150 million) from reputed development financial institutions from across the world to under-banked small businesses and households.

Commenting on the debt fund raise, Suhail Sameer, Group President, BharatPe,said, “At BharatPe, we are committed to bridging the credit gap for SMEs and small merchants in the country. We’ve considerably ramped up our lending business in the last year and have set an ambitious target of facilitating disbursals to the tune of $1 billion to over 10 lakh merchants by the end of the current fiscal. We are excited about our latest capital raise from Northern Arc, and are confident that together, we’ll be able to transform BharatPe and serve the needs of underserved businesses in India. As we aggressively build this vertical and roll out products in the secured lending space, we’ll continue to partner with institutional debt providers to help empower millions of small merchants in India.”

Commenting on the transaction,BamaBalakrishnan, COO, Northern Arc, said, “Northern Arc has continually worked towards extending credit to like-minded organisations such as BharatPe that enable financial access to small businesses and merchants across the country. This transaction is a testament to Northern Arc’s commitment towards fulfilling the credit requirement of the under-banked segments of the country.”