ePayLater Raises INR 18 Cr From Pravega VenturesFunds will be used to further expand and enhance its offering in the retail segment
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Mumbai-basedePayLater on Friday announced to have raised a funding round of INR 18 crore from Pravega Ventures and internal investors.
The company will use the funds to further expand and enhance its offering in the retail segment.
Founded in 2015, the digital payment solutions provider has said to have forged deep partnerships with some of the largest conglomerates in the country including the likes of Wal-Mart, Metro Cash and Carry, etc to foray into the B2B world. They offer 14 days of interest-free credit to borrowers to make payments for purchasing goods and services from their partner merchants. Other investors in ePayLater include ICICI Bank, GMO PG, and Patni Financial Advisors.
"We have an avowed objective of empowering people and helping them discover their potential by providing seamless and timely financial solutions. At a time when the market needs innovative solutions to tackle the dual problems of cash and low credit, we are well poised to serve the markets by the use of our technology and financial expertise. We are happy to raise this funding as it shows the confidence of the investors in our product and vision," ePayLater said in a statement released.
The business-to-business (B2B) pay later space especially the food and groceries segment is marked by low penetration of formal financing that belies its massive size in excess of $500 billion. Also, most transactions in this segment tend to happen in cash or informal credit, creating operational inefficiencies and financial risk that are ultimately cascaded to end consumer
"We believe the SMB space in the retail market in India is ripe for disruption and introduction of state of the art payment/credit methods is the need of the hour. There is a need for empowering the SMB by enabling them for digital loans. ePayLater is providing the tech/financing solution needed and we have confidence in the company's ability to cater to this segment in a scalable manner," Pravega Ventures added.
In the food and groceries retail segment alone, the platform has disbursed close to INR 670 crore in the last three years. Post-COVID the company has emerged stronger with most metrics reaching pre-COVID levels. Most noteworthy are the delinquency figures which are trending at record lows.
