In Startup50 2016: For its wonderful growth trajectory as India’s largest digital financing platform for SMEs; last year the company served 1500 customers in 100+ cities. 

Founders: Gaurav Hinduja, Sashank Rishyasringa

Bangalore-based Capital Float, a digital financing platform, provides quick and easy capital to help SMEs fund growth and achieve their next milestone. An online lending marketplace, leading banks and financial institutions also participate as lenders on this platform.

Funding

The venture was funded in June 2014 by Aspada and SAIF Partners to the tune of US $4 million in the seed round of funding. In Feb 2015, Sequoia Capital led Series-A funding of US $13 million along with existing investors, Aspada and SAIF. In May 2016, the company raised US $25 million in Series-B funding from Creations Investments, along with SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital and Aspada.

Key Strengths

The 350-employee company has been experiencing 30 per cent month on month growth in terms of customers, with 45 per cent growth in July 2016. It serves over 1500 customers in 100+ cities and has disbursed fastest loan in India (4:32 minutes). The venture receives an enquiry on its website every two minutes. It achieved 6x growth in employee number over the last year.

Highlights

The venture collaborated with India Stack to create an app through which kirana store owners can apply for a loan from their store using their mobile phones and receive funds in just 10 minutes.

It provides the lowest down-payment option in the industry for taxi drivers to purchase their car and drive it on a taxi aggregator platform.

Unsecured business loans and online seller finance are the two best performing products on its SME lending marketplace.

Using technology as an enabler, it has used surrogate data points to assess creditworthiness of the applicant. This was never done before in India.

It is the first company in India to disburse loans via mobile applications.

It has enabled taxi drivers, kirana store owners, travel agents (i.e. the bottom of the pyramid) through customized credit products to help them achieve breakthroughs in the professional life.