LenDenClub's fintech venture fund for startups

Mumbai: In its bid to identify and nurture innovative tech and fintech focused startups, LenDenClub, a lending platform, has launched a venture fund called 'LenDenClub Alpha' which will focus on seed and pre-series stage fintech startups. LenDenClub Alpha aims to on-board early-stage startups, offering them mentorship and access to capital thereby enabling them to accelerate their growth journey and boosting the country's 'Digital India' vision.

Apart from capital infusion through LenDenClub Alpha, the company plans to utilise its expertise in the fintech space to mentor these startups to plan and grow in the right direction to become the next disruptors in the fintech space. The fund aims to assist its investee startups by offering mentorship, technological upgradation, driving customer acquisition, and building innovative products for masses among others. With the fund's launch, the platform is planning to make a strategic move to take early bets that may lead to the expansion of the fintech startup ecosystem.

Designed to help startups scale at an accelerated pace, LenDenClub Alpha will hand-pick seed and pre-series stage ventures to unleash their growth potential. The platform will help startups design their vision and build a robust business model that offers tech-backed futuristic products to create optimum consumer impact. The platform intends to invest funds based on the requirements and potential of the particular startup. LenDenClub Alpha will therefore focus on startups in the space of lendtech, wealthtech, neobanks, underwriting tools, and other allied segments.

Talking to Bizz Buzz, Bhavin Patel, Co-founder and CEO of LenDenClub, says, "We are looking to finance 25-30 startups during the current fiscal by investing a sum of $2-3 million by the end of the current fiscal."

India has today emerged as the second biggest startup hub in the world. With the hyperactive momentum being witnessed across the startup ecosystem, it becomes significant for established startup players to take the lead in paving a transformative approach towards capability building.

At LenDenClub Alpha, we want promising startups to ride on the knowledge, and expertise that we have built over a period of time, thereby enabling them to grow at an accelerated pace. We believe in the power of 'shared vision' and 'shared growth' and it's about time for us to extend this approach beyond LenDenClub, he says.

According to Patel, "We envision India to emerge as the global fintech leader and LenDenClub Alpha is a giant leap towards this vision, whereby we aim to help our fellow startups to build innovative products and register high-scale growth."

The company, which aspires to become a digital bank in the near future, has been steadily expanding its product portfolio to meet the needs of its borrowers and investors.

The company recently raised $10 million from Artha Venture Fund, Kunal Shah, cricketer Hardik Pandya, Tuscan Venture, Ohm Stock Brokers and other notable investors. The fast-growing platform has formed a new arm to enhance the scale of India's startup ecosystem.

The company currently has over 3.5 million borrowers and about 1.8 million investors and has registered fresh loan disbursements of Rs 3,000 crore during FY22. The platform's fresh annual loan disbursements grew by 200x from FY19 to FY22.