A fintech startup, Rupeek, has raised USD 30 million led by Bertelsmann India Investments with the participation from the existing investors Accel and Sequoia India.
The funding will be used towards product development and market expansion and will be completed in two tranches. Rupeek was founded in 2015, and the company which disburses gold loans claims to have an annual run rate of above USD 150 million and is growing at 20 percent monthly.
“We would like to bring transparency in the lending space and protect retail investor interest at all costs. We will be using our proprietary tech hardware to ensure standardization, fairness, and scalability in gold purity assessment. The investment will also help us rapidly scale across new markets” said Sumit Maniyar, Founder & CEO, Rupeek.
At present, Federal Bank and Karur Vysya Bank are its lending partners.
“Powered by state-of-the-art technology and an automated asset-light supply chain, Rupeek is transforming the way gold loans are disbursed in India,” Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director at Bertelsmann India Investments said.
India currently has 27,000 tonnes of gold worth more than USD 1 trillion, and the organised gold loan disbursal market in India is estimated at USD 90 billion per annum. The country’s gold loan is 6 to 7 percent monetized through the organised market.
At present, India imports 750 tonnes of gold annually without contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) multiplier as most of the imported gold sits idle in the form of jewelry.
