Continuing to nurture tech-startups, VCats empowers young Fin-Tech Startup
April 12 2016, 16.50 PM IST || Pocket News Alert
New Delhi, April 12, 2016: India’s pioneer Seed Investment & Innovation platform, Venture Catalyst has recently invested seed funding in a premium peer-to-peer lending platform, LenDenClub. Some of the veteran investors from VCats, including the likes of AnirudhDamani, Daud Ali, NarendraKarnavat, Vikaskapoor, Vikramlakhotia, Krishna Jhunjhunwaala and Jayesh Shah participated in the funding.
Founded by Dipesh&Bhavin in 2014, LenDenClub is a Fin-Tech startup connecting salaried borrowers to individual lenders. Currently operating as a web-based platform, LenDenClub considers a combination of traditional and non-traditional data points to validate the credit-worthiness of the lender. Having arranged more than 150 loans till date, the Founders plan to utilize the seed funds into further enhancing the platform and ultimately create an end-to-end online lending process.
Anirudh Damani, Angel Investor at Venture Catalyst had another point to add about the announcement,“Unstructured P2P lending has been going on for centuries and while the world has moved on to structured P2P lending the space is at a nascent stage in India but the demand for such a platform is quite high. Which is why LenDen club has solid prospects as it concentrates on creating a good supply of borrowers for yield/return hungry (small or large) investors who are flush with liquidity. We are excited to invest in LenDen and will follow-on in later rounds.”
Commenting further on the recent development, Dr. ApoorvRanjan Sharma, Co-founder, Venture Catalyst, commented, “Peer-to-peer lending is a disruptive concept in itself, especially in regards to the present day economy. We further have complete faith in the founding team, and believe in their potential to create an excellent product, given the right amount of assistance and mentoring. "
Echoing the same thought, NarendraKarnavat, Angel Investor at Venture Catalystsobserved, “There is a lot of scope for peer to peer lending platform in India. This web based platform for lending business offers good opportunity for growth. Since there are a lot of regulatory & RBI hurdles in this industry, it is considered to be high risk -return investment. To eliminate the risk associated in this segment, there has to be proper solutions in place to keep the regulatory hurdles out.”
The seed investment will enable LenDen Club to further enhance its disruptive technology and emerge as the leader in the peer-to-peer lending segment. Sharing furthermore on securing funding, a visibly excited Bhavin Patel, Co-Founder & CEO, LenDen Club, said “We wanted to bring traditional lending on digital platform. Securing seed funding at such a nascent stage gives us the boost we have been looking for. This will allow us to further improve the platform and reach out to more users. Eventually, we hope to become one of the most widely accessed peer-to-peer lending platforms.”
Present at the funding session, Daud Ali, Angel Investor at Venture Catalysts, shared, “Investing in Fin-Tech business is a great opportunity in India as well as globally. There is lot of disruption witnessed in this new & emerging segment.”When asked what makes LenDenClub unique, he was quick to add, “It is their innovative & distinctive business model that helps serving the underserved financially by integrating huge number of borrowers & lenders at a mass level.”
Their decision to invest in LenDenClub is in close tandem with the vision of Venture Catalysts to promote innovation and tech-driven entrepreneurship in India. Associated with several start-up accelerators as well, VCats provide enough opportunities for startups to connect with mentors, partners or investors from across the globe.
About Venture Catalysts:
Venture Catalysts is India’s first Seed Investment & Innovation Platform which adds value to start-ups through its angel network, venture fund, co-working facility and effective post-investment support. Founded by Dr. ApoorvRanjan Sharma, former Executive Vice President at VentureNursery, Mr. Gaurav Jain, (Former Venture Capitalist at GenNext Ventures, IIT Grad and an MBA from Stanford), Mr. AnujGolecha (Angel Investor & Partner, Banshi Jain & Associates), Mr. Anil Jain (Co-founder, Wallfort Financial Services Ltd. One of the largest institutional broking firms of India) and Venture Catalysts brings lethal combination of Capital, Mentoring and Business Network to help investee companies to succeed.
With an end-goal of disrupting the Seed Investment industry, VCats will be looking to integrate services to address the various start-up requirements on a single platform. The company is looking to have about 800-1000 active angels onboard its platform in the near future.