[Funding alert] Fintech startup Chqbook raises Rs 40 Cr in pre-Series B round

Gurugram and Bengaluru-based fintech startup Chqbook on Thursday said it has raised Rs 40 crore in a pre-Series B investment round led by existing investors Aavishkaar Capital and the Rajiv Dadlani Group, among others.

The startup said it will use funds from the latest round to ramp up its user acquisition and bolster its technology.

Chqbook had recently raised Rs 7.5 crore in venture debt from InnoVen Capital to meet consumer demand for its lending business.

"Across the country, over the next ten years, we expect small businesses to grow exponentially. In addition, the adoption of 5G services will expand the scope of services customers can access," said Vipul Sharma, Co-founder and CEO of Chqbook in a press statement.

"At Chqbook, we are committed to solving for this community and aim to lend over Rs 300 billion (Rs 30,000 crore), open one million accounts, and insure 10 million customers over the next few years," he added.

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The pre-Series B funding round also saw participation from Earlsfield Capital UK, family offices, and HNI investors such as Jeremy Lim, Bhupesh Kumar, and Nilesh Srivastava, among others.

Chqbook's app has crossed over a million downloads since it launched, and has over 6.5 lakh transacting customers. It processes over Rs 3,000 crore of the annualised transaction value.

Founded in 2017 by Vipul, Rajat Kumar, Sachin Arora, and Mohit Goel, Chqbook.com is a neobank for small business owners that offers various financial services to small businesses, including banking, khata, lending, insurance, and rewards.

The neobanking startup's USP is its all-in-one “financial control centre” that brings all the products and services a business might need – daily, monthly, or yearly — together on a single platform.

"Given (the founders') vision and strong execution, also neobanking being at a nascent stage in India, with huge growth potential, we are glad to partake as long-term investors," said Rajiv Dadlani from the family office of the Rajiv Dadlani Group.

"There is a large opportunity in providing financial products and services to small businesses in India and Southeast Asia, which has largely been ignored by existing lending institutions/banks due to lack of infrastructure and unavailability of credit history, among other factors. We are excited to partner with and support the team at Chqbook through their growth...," said Aakash Agrawal at Earlsfield Capital.

In March last year, Chqbook had raised Rs 35 crore in institutional funding from Aavishkar Capital.

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