[Funding alert] Digital lender CASHe raises Rs 140 cr from Singapore-based TSLC

Online lender CASHe on Tuesday said it raised Rs 140 crore in funding from Singapore-based fintech firm TSLC, bringing its total balance sheet size to over Rs 800 crore.

Of the Rs 800 crore, Rs 500 crore was raised via debt from private banks and NBFCs.

The startup said it will use funds from the latest round to expand its loan book to Rs 3,000 crore, double its team strength across portfolios, and strive to add more users — nearly one million versus the exiting four lakh — on its platform.

CASHe has disbursed loans worth Rs 1,000 crore in the nine months of the fiscal year so far.

"We have set our goals to become a full-stack, credit-led financial wellness platform of choice for the millennial and Gen Z cohort. The new capital infusion reflects a meaningful maturity level of CASHe's balance sheet, profitability, and business model," said V Raman Kumar, Chairman and Founder of CASHe, in a press release.

Founded in 2016 by Raman, CASHe is a digital lending startup that caters to the financial needs of professionals aged 25 to 35 years. He set up the company after realising the idea of credit is invariably linked to a borrower’s credit rating, and that a borrower will not qualify for a loan if the rating provided by the credit bureau does not pass muster with financial institutions.

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The fintech startup solves the problem by deploying an automated and robust credit lending system. Its AI-based algorithm — developed in-house — assesses the risk of a borrower based on the user’s social and mobile data footprints.

Its model goes beyond traditional credit-risk metrics and assesses the borrower’s “goodness quotient” and the ability to repay. Its target audience, therefore, includes young working professionals who are either near-prime or subprime borrowers with or without a prior credit history.

At present, the startup has over 15 million registered users, and has given out loans worth Rs 3,000 crore to over four lakh customers, of which 70 percent are repeat borrowers.