SaaS platform Lentra said on Monday that it has raised $60 million as part of its Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, and SIG Venture Capital at a valuation of over $400 million.
Incorporated in July 2018, Lentra is in the business of designing, developing, licensing, and implementing software products for the financial services sector, Lentra’s country-wise presence is in India, Singapore, and the Philippines.
The company, which has more than 50 clients in India, will use the funding for products+platform strengthening and international expansion, including in the US. The round also saw participation from Citi Ventures, marking its first fintech investment in India.
The company has processed over 13 billion transactions and $21 billion worth of loans on its platform so far. The company clocked revenues of Rs 80 crore (or roughly $10 million) for FY22, CEO founder and chief executive D Venkatesh told ET. It looks to end the ongoing fiscal year with revenue of Rs 180 crore (about $22 million).
“We see a massive opportunity for ourselves in the retail assets and business banking areas worldwide. At the same time, our clients see us as a source of competitive advantage for their business. Ten-fold revenue growth and some of the biggest retail banks as our clients now, act as markers of our solution architecture,” Venkatesh said in a statement.
Separately, HDFC Bank has executed an agreement to sell 3.21% stake held in Lentra aggregating to nearly Rs. 54.16 crore, in a partial divestment of its holdings, according to a regulatory filing.
Upon completion of the transaction, HDFC Bank’s shareholding in Lentra will be around 6.61% on a fully diluted basis.
Even as macroeconomic headwinds are threatening to derail the deal-making momentum in India in the short term, startups offering software as a service (SaaS) and building global products have fared better than others this year.
SaaS startups that have garnered mega funding — investments over $100 million — this year include conversational automation platform Uniphore, data analytics company Fractal, enterprise software startup Chargebee, sales automation platform LeadSquared, and Observe.ai, which develops AI software for call centres.
Banking lending software is an area where innovation has not kept pace with product releases, due to monolithic legacy software. Lentra through its modular lending cloud architecture has helped some of the largest banks in India democratise credit access by expanding into newer retail assets through instant configurable lending journeys, ” Bhavanipratap Rana, Investment Advisor to SIG said in a statement.