BharatPe acquires 51% stake in NBFC Trillion Loans

BharatPe Group has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Mumbai-based NBFC, Trillion Loans. 

Ravindra Pandey, Advisor to the board; Nalin Negi, Chief Financial Officer and interim CEO; and Sabyasachi Senapati, Head—Banking have been appointed to the board of the newly-acquired entity. Trillion Loans will continue to operate as an independent entity with its own team under the supervision of the board, the company said in a statement. 

“It will explore partnerships with other fintech firms and other companies to enable credit across a diverse set of businesses and consumers. BharatPe has also infused a substantial amount of investment into Trillion Loans to enable the NBFC to grow its loan book,” it added. 

The deal, which was completed in April, was pegged at about Rs 300 crore as per a Livemint report. The acquisition of the NBFC will bolster BharatPe's lending play as it will allow the company to offer loans and credit facilities without relying on partners.

Also Read

RBI issues framework for acceptance of green deposits by banks, NBFCs

Owned by Achal Mittal and Gautam Adukia, Trillion Loans offers secured and unsecured loans, including working capital, to SMEs besides other categories like auto, gold, and education. 

In FY22, it posted a profit of Rs 74 lakh, while the revenue was around Rs 7 crore. 

Mittal and Adukia also run P2P (peer-to-peer) NBFC Liquiloans, which backs BharatPe’s P2P lending product—12% Club. 

Commenting on the acquisition, Shashvat Nakrani, Founder and COO, BharatPe, said, the business model revolves around providing access to credit to merchant partners. “We had launched our merchant lending vertical in 2019 and it has grown exponentially over the course of the last 3+ years. Today, we facilitate loans of over Rs 500 crores every month to our merchant partners,” he added. 

Further, the Tiger Global-backed firm said it will bring in product and technology capabilities to enable the NBFC to launch new digital lending products.