23. September. 2021 – India-based ePayLater, an SME-credit space startup announced it has raised USD 10 Million in its Series B round. The funding round was led by Blue Ashva Capital, Responsibility Investments, Pravega Ventures and other investors.
ePayLater plans to utilise the funding to reach out to more potential customers and retailers across locations and upgrade itself to become a one-stop solution for all financing needs of the small businesses – kiranas/traders/wholesalers.
Words from the investors –
Head of Private Equity, Akshay Dua – Sustainable Food APAC, Responsibility Investments, said,
“In India, kirana stores are an important part of the economy, supporting millions, and we saw how indispensable they were during the lockdowns. India cannot grow inclusively without removing the inefficiencies in the system. With its innovative tech platform that allows alternative underwriting and embedding finance in the process, ePayLater is creating a massive impact by providing financial inclusion and achieving digital transformation in the country.”
“Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is a growing space globally and there is a significant potential to utilise this to provide interest-free credit to retailers and SMEs for their efficient working capital requirements. ePayLater is a leading digitally integrated player with major B2B platforms in India and we look forward to closely working with them in growing this further,” added Satya Bansal, Founder of Blue Ashva Capital.
About ePayLater –
ePayLater, a startup initiated by Akshat Saxena, Aurko Bhattacharya, Shanmu Thiagaraja, Uday Somayajula and Prasanna Muralidharan in December 2015. It offers a zero cost credit solution to SMEs spread across more than 100 cities in India and has disbursed over USD 135 Million (Rs 1,000 crore) in facilitating purchase for inventory.
ePayLater works closely with B2B majors like BigBasket, Walmart, and CashMemo etc., and also directly with big and prominent FMCG brands. The solution offered by startups is available to retailers across digital and physical sales channels and strengthens SMEs to purchase inventory across various product categories at the best prices without the hassle and tassel of being constrained for credit.
ePayLater also helps reduce the trust deficit that prevails in digital B2B commerce as buyer obligation to pay arises only after goods are physically delivered to them, with an extended period of 14 days of interest-free credit.
The small traders, kiranas and wholesalers are a significant force in the economy of India and impact on a huge sector, as there are nearly 12 million kirana stores, alone in the Food and Groceries segment. Each of these stores has a customer base of at least 50-100 households. Thus, any solution which helps in improving the productivity, efficiency, and profitability of the segment, impacts directly on millions of citizens.
The Founder Aurko Bhattacharya said,
“At ePayLater, we are driven by the vision of making credit accessible to as many retailers and small businesses as possible. In the last two years, we have transformed the lives of over 70,000 retailers in India and this round of funding helps us to reach out to many more retailers and help them in improving the efficiency, the profitability of their businesses by giving them the best tools that technology can provide.”
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