Stride Ventures Invests In ZipLoan; Enters Into Fintech Lending
Stride Ventures has led a debt round of INR 15 crore in ZipLoan, a technology-enabled lending platform that provides loans to MSMEs
By Debarghya Sil •
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Stride Ventures, a venture debt firm, on Wednesday, has led a debt round of INR 15 crore in ZipLoan, a technology-enabled lending platform that provides loans to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
This move is marked as the first step by Stride to enter into fintech lending. According to a statement, the said amount will be disbursed in two tranches.
ZipLoan launched in 2015 by Kshitij Puri and Shalabh Singhal provides loans to Kirana stores and micro industries. The fintech claims that it is addressing the key pain point of small businesses, i.e. access to formal credit by customizing the loan sourcing and underwriting process for its target customer base.
According to its ZipScore platform, the test creditworthiness of a borrower has helped the fintech maintain its non-performing assets (NPA) at under 3 per cent.
Commenting on the recent development, Ishpreet Gandhi, founder and managing partner, Stride Ventures, said "We are excited to partner with ZipLoan in their pursuit to revolutionize lending to small business owners. It is our endeavour at Stride to make credit accessible and efficient as we try to prevent equity dilution and make entrepreneurs truly "Atmanirbhar'. The company has exhibited tremendous growth without compromising the quality of the loan book.
We are confident that the company will continue to scale even in these challenging times."
Kshitij Puri, Co-founder & CEO, ZipLoan, added, "We are privileged to partner with Stride Ventures as they help us realize our mission of addressing funding needs of small business owners. The MSME segment is the most important contributor to our economy, but still continues to be credit starved. Even during the current crisis, the MSME segment has shown great resilience demonstrated by strong collections we have had."
ZipLoan has till date disbursed around INR 400 crores to over 10,000 borrowers. The online lender currently operates in Delhi NCR, Lucknow, Jaipur, Mumbai, Indore, and Dehradun.
