PaySense raises $5.3M in Series A from Jungle Ventures, Naspers, Nexus Ventures

On Thursday, digital consumer credit platform PaySense announced having raised $5.3 million as part of its Series A round, which was led by Jungle Ventures. The round also saw participation from Naspers Group and existing investor Nexus Venture Partners.

While speaking to YourStory, PaySense Co-founder and CEO Prashanth Ranganathan said the funding will be used primarily to enrich the product, while building overall core capabilities. This will also involve adding more members to the product team.

Prashant said,

"Our mandate is to look into every aspect of the product, be it recommendation, better underwriting, or collection. And when we talk about product development, we think about how we can source our consumers in a more efficient and technology-driven way."

In 2015, the company had raised $2.3 million led by Nexus Venture Partners and prominent global angels.

Focusing on consumer lending, PaySense is a technology and data science company that gives loans and credit options in the range of Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh.

Through electronic documentation and e-KYC, PaySense can extend credit to its customers within hours. Once the verification is completed, the platform offers customers an instant credit line with custom loan options they can avail anytime.

Speaking on the investment, Amit Anand, Founder and Managing Partner, Jungle Ventures, said,

We have patiently been looking at this space in India and feel very excited to eventually partner with the PaySense team and other investors. There are going to be a few mega companies being formed in this space and the PaySense team has demonstrated great understanding and traction on various aspects required to become a category leader here.

Adding to the conversation, Anup Gupta, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners, who led the company's seed round in the summer of 2015, said,

"A large segment of Indian consumers are credit-worthy but not being addressed by conventional players. We are excited to partner with PaySense in the company's mission to leverage data science and technology to provide the right credit products to these customers in a seamless, low-friction manner."

At present, PaySense's team is made up of more than 40, including engineers, data scientists, product managers, and experts from finance, e-commerce, and business development.

Additionally, the service is available in nine major cities including Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and Chennai, with plans to go pan-India soon.

Prashanth also stated that the firm has deployed close to Rs 30 crore in loans over the past year. At present, the company services around 1,80,000 customers who have either availed loans from the platform or are in the process of doing so. PaySense also claims that 60 percent of its users are repeat customers.

Looking at the future, PaySense wants to serve the underserved population that doesn't have a credit history. In partnership with IIFL as its regulated lending partner, the company is sure that it wouldn't want to get distracted by focusing on the SME lending or a lending aggregator model.

Prashant further added,

"We want to drive as a full-stack solution and hone our expertise in the entire process of lending and not just be an individual white-label service for just underwriting or collection or payments."