Financial marketplace BankBazaar.com, has raised Rs 45 crore in financing from new investor WSV, a joint venture fund of Walden International and Korean company SKTA, and its existing investors including Amazon, Sequoia India, Experian, and Eight Roads. SKTA is part of the Korean conglomerate SK Group, the second largest conglomerate in South Korea.
The latest capital raise is part of BankBazaar’s Series D1 equity financing round, and the proceeds will be used to accelerate the delivery of contactless personal finance products and business expansion in India.
“In the post-COVID-19 world, the demand for contactless finance is going to grow exponentially, and this round of funding will help us accelerate our plans to implement contactless access to credit. This round of funding reiterates our investors’ trust in our vision of contactless finance as the future of personal finance and in our ability to make it a reality,” Adhil Shetty, CEO, BankBazaar, said in a statement.
BankBazaar said in a statement that it was on track to achieve operational month-on-month profitability in March 2020 when the lockdown was announced. Between October 2019 and February 2020, BankBazaar saw a 90% increase in monthly organic traffic and its registered customer base rose to over 40 million. The company saw a 53% increase in monthly revenue and a 15% reduction in costs during the same period despite tough market conditions.
“BankBazaar is creating the ‘Credit Karma’ of India with leading edge technology, a stellar team, and the support of an incredible set of strategic investors. We can’t wait to see how they help revolutionize the Indian financial services sector,” says Andrew Kau, General Partner with WSV.
Commenting on the investment, a senior Amazon US spokesperson said: “As existing investors, we are glad to support BankBazaar in the current fundraise and look forward to the next wave of digitization in this country.”