CreditMantri raises $2.5 million from IDG Ventures India, Elevar Equity and Accion Venture Lab

CreditMantri is a provider of credit management services to lenders and borrowers. The company has announced a $2.5 million Series A round of funding from IDG Ventures India, Elevar Equity and Accion Venture Lab. CreditMantri will use the funds to broaden and accelerate their platform development and to further build out their user base.

Chennai based CreditMantri is co-founded by 3 ex-Citibank executives – Ranjit Punja, R Sudarshan and Gowri Mukherjee. The aim is to empower consumers to know their credit potential and benefit from this knowledge. Customers can access their credit scores, learn how they can improve their credit health, resolve past issues, reduce current borrowing costs and in the process discover products best matched to their credit profile. CreditMantri's approach aims to enable lenders and borrowers to better understand each other by leveraging the power of data, resulting in efficient credit decision making.

The team at CreditMantri believes that with lenders embracing Credit Bureaus like CIBIL and Equifax to make their lending decisions, there is a strong need for individual consumers to better understand their Credit Health and take charge of it. “The extensive adoption of the digital medium by the large numbers of millenials joining the workforce and need for lenders to better understand these consumers makes the CreditMantri proposition a compelling one“, says TC Meenakshisundaram - Founder and Managing Director, IDG Ventures India Advisors.

On the lenders side, there are challenges in loan approval rates with a surge in customers with credit–related issues or individuals with no prior credit history. CreditMantri’s proprietary credit profiling and matching logic is expected to lead to better approval rates for lenders. Lenders will gain by having a more efficient and nuanced decision making capability to explore newer segments.

“There are millions of people who do not even access the formal banking channels - and for those who do, over 60% of bank loan applications get rejected due to negative or no credit history. We are excited to partner with a passionate and experienced team that is determined to solve this large problem,” says Jyotsna Krishnan, Director and Head of India Investments, Elevar Equity.

CreditMantri aims to disrupt the way customers will apply for loans and hopes to ultimately enable wider credit dispensation. "Our confidence has been further bolstered by the strong endorsement from Elevar, IDG and Accion. Our Series A investors have a great track record of starting out early with companies and seeing them through the various stages of growth. We are particularly excited about the individual competencies they bring across Consumer Internet, Financial Services and the Fintech space," says Ranjit.

Website: CreditMantri