Propelld, digital lending startup, based out of Bengaluru, has secured $2 million (approx ₹13 crore) from Stellaris Venture Partners and India Quotient. The startup will use the infuse funds to expand its partner institutes and students by 10 times over the next 18 months.
Indian Angel Network and TaxiForSure’s Raghunandan G, and Livspace founder Ramakant Sharma also participated in the round.
According to the data, accessed by Inc42, Stellaris Venture Partners have invested $928,000 to acquire 4.8K shares in the fintech company. While, India Quotient made an investment of $638,000 to buy 3.3K shares.
“We are expanding the education credit market by creating tailor-made loan products with inputs from our institute and NBFC partners, so that default risk is identified early, and the downside is shared between the stakeholders,” Bibhu Prasad Das, co-founder of Propelld, said.
The Bengaluru-based company Propelled was founded by Bibhu Prasad Das, Victor Senapaty, and Brijesh Samantaray in 2017.
It is aimed at providing credit options to students of vocational courses with a low credit score or a non-existent credit history, which limits their access to traditional lending institutions.
“Education financing is a massive under-served opportunity in India where a tiny percentage of students have access to bank credit. Propelled can determine the students’ future income and consequently offer credit to a much larger student population,” Ritesh Banglani, partner, Stellaris Venture Partners, said.
Propelld has tied with over 150 educational institutes across the country including IT training institutes such as NIIT, Aptech, Pune Institute of Business Management and more.
Further, Propelld claimed to have disbursed loans to more than 1500 students so far.
On the other hand, a BCG report has predicted the digital lending industry to touch $1 trillion mark in the next five years.
While, other existing players in the digital lending sector include Lendingkart, PerkFinance, Avail Finance, Aye Finance and more.