Lendingkart Technologies revenue triples but loss widens by 31 pc to Rs 52 Cr in FY18

Ahmedabad-based Lendingkart Technologies reported a consolidated loss of Rs 52.26 crore despite a three-fold increase in revenue.

Lendingkart Technologies, parent of digital SME lender Lendingkart reported a three-fold increase in its consolidated revenue in FY18. The company’s consolidated revenue grew to Rs 91.8 crore last fiscal from Rs 35.6 crores in FY17.

Lendingkart's total expenses almost doubled from Rs 75.5 crores in FY17 to Rs 144.15 crores in FY18. This increase in operations also led to widening losses for the company.

According to latest filings, the company registered a total consolidated loss of Rs 52.26 crores in FY18. This is a 31 percent rise since FY17 when its loss stood at Rs 39.8 crore.

Earlier this February, Lendingkart announced that it closed $87 million as a part of their Series-C round led by Singapore’s Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH), a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings.

The round also saw participation from Singapore-based Sistema Asia Fund along with participation from current investors Bertelsmann India Investment, Mayfield India, Saama Capital, India Quotient and Darrin Capital Management.

The founders stated that of this amount, $15 million was already being utilised for technology and salaries, while approximately $100 million was available as a runway for the company to use.

By May, the company said that it has expanded its reach and facilitated loans to 1,000 cities in India, disbursing more than 25,000 loans across 26 diverse sectors.

The SME lender also stated that it received requests from more than 650,000 MSMEs until May, and evaluated over 150,000 requests to validate the creditworthiness of applicants.

In May, Lendingkart co-founder Harshvardhan Lunia told YourStory that the platform is adding close to 20-25 cities every month. Further, only 2,000 of the 50,000 customers coming on the platform on a monthly basis are from tier-I cities.

It also claimed that around 40 percent of its total loan book comprises borrowers from tier-II and tier-III cities while around 20 percent are from tier-IV and tier-V geographies.