Fintech Startup GimBooks Raises Seed Funding From First Check Ventures And Y Combinator The funds will be used by the company towards team and product(s) building, growth, and rapid user acquisition
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Chattisgarh-based fintech startup for Indian SMEs, GimBooks, on Friday announced to have raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding from a network (syndicate) of angel investors pooled in by First Check Ventures through the US-based AngelList platform. The Seed funding round was led by Ali Jamal, founding partner, First Check Ventures. The US-based startup accelerator Y Combinator also invested in GimBooks by infusing an investment of $1,25000 into the startup.
Notably, this is the first funding round raised by GimBooks since its inception in 2018; prior to this, the startup was bootstrapped. The company will be utilizing the newly-raised funds to ramp up its team, product development and to accelerate customer acquisition via increased marketing spends.
"We are delighted to announce the first-ever funding round of GimBooks, which enables us to fast-track our growth and customer acquisition, and strengthens our commitment to provide high-quality solutions for millions of small and medium-sized businesses in India. We are grateful to our investors -- First Check Ventures and Y Combinator for instating their faith in us. Going forward, more and more SMEs of our country will continue to show an increased inclination towards digitization and tech adoption in the years to come, and while leveraging on this trend, we at GimBooks remain committed to continuing serving the SME ecosystem," said Yash Raj Agarwal, founder, and chief executive officer, GimBooks.
GimBooks, which was launched originally as an invoice-maker app in 2018, has evolved over the years into full-fledged bookkeeping, accounting, lending, and banking platform dedicated to empowering India's MSME and SME entrepreneurs. GimBooks operates on a freemium model; the start-up has already acquired 12, 500 paid users, and is looking to cross a milestone of 25,000 paid users by the end of the current year. Notably, GimBooks is currently in talks with a few more international investors to raise its Pre-Series A funding round in the upcoming months.
During the last quarter FY21, the company has clocked a revenue of INR 75 lakh, whereas in the ongoing FY21 quarter II, the startup is on track to cross more than INR 1 crore revenue. Furthermore, the startup is, at the moment, growing at a rate of 15-20 per cent month-on-month (m-o-m), and has reached nearly 2 million installs of its flagship mobile app. GimBooks' long-term mission is to become the most trusted and go-to "platform of choice' for all SMEs in India and ensure to be able to cater to their financial and business management needs in a comprehensive and sustainable manner.
