RevFin looks to raise $40M this year to accelerate lending for EVs

Digital lending platform RevFin today said it plans to raise around $40 million (about Rs 290 crore) through debt and equity by the end of this fiscal to accelerate its lending, according to a top company official.

The financial technology platform with its own NBFC, which focuses on loans for electric small commercial vehicles, has set a target of financing three lakh vehicles in the next three years.

"We've set ourselves a target of financing 3,00,000 vehicles in the next three years. That's roughly around Rs 3,000 crore of lending in the next three years, starting with about Rs 200 crore in this year and and the rest coming over the next two years," Revfin Services Founder and CEO Sameer Aggarwal said.

Started in 2018, the company has financed about 2,300-2,400 EVs so far, he said adding, "Obviously, last one-and-a-half years we didn't do anything, we just had a few 100 (vehicles) because the market was primarily shut (due to COVID-19)."

When asked about capital requirements, Aggarwal said the company will look at both equity and debt for infusion.

"We are going to lend through our NBFC on our balance sheet, which is what we have done so far. For that, we are going to raise equity and debt...in the next six months, somewhere towards the end of this financial year, we want to do a big fundraising round (equity), around $10 million."

He further said, "Every time we raise equity, we leverage it by raising debt equal to around two to three times of that equity."

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Asked if that meant RevFin is looking to raise a total of around $40 million in debt and equity by the end of this fiscal year, he said, "Yes." Before that, he said in the immediate future "in pre-Series A, we are raising equity of about $1.5 million".

Sharing the company's expansion plans, Aggarwal said at present the distribution of electric vehicles is mostly across northern parts of the country although it is beginning to expand in western states such as Gujarat and Maharashtra, besides Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in south.

"North and east we have covered. West and south, the market is still not fully developed. As the market develops and as a need for financing grows in those markets, we will be there," he added.

RevFin has been focussing on financing electric three-wheelers in Tier III and Tier IV towns, primarily to underserved individuals irrespective of credit history, geography, education, or language.

It uses a mix of digital psychometric and biometric tests to predict the customer's intention to repay a loan and accordingly sanctions or rejects the loan.