Trifecta Capital has contributed Rs 100 crore in venture debt to the consumer lending app RING. This marks the Mumbai-based company’s first fundraising effort for 2024.
In a press release, RING stated that it will use the debt facility for on-lending and expanding its balance sheet loan book.
With this funding, Trifecta is giving the RING team, founders Krishnan Vishwanathan and Ranvir Singh, a second and bigger cheque to continue their partnership.
Before this, in early 2022, RING obtained a debt of Rs 50 crore from Trifecta. Media reports state that the parent company of the business, OnEMi Technologies, has raised more than $150 million (equity plus debt) from investors including Endiya Partners, Brunei Investment Agency, Vertex Ventures, Ventureast, and others thus far. Another entity within OnEMi Technologies is NBFC Kissht.
In Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III cities, RING offers personal credit to self-employed and salaried workers. RING claims to have achieved an AUM of over Rs 3,000 crore for the financial year ending March 2024 and serves over 1 crore unique borrowers thanks to its own NBFC license and access to third-party balance sheets, the company said in a statement.
RING provides flexible repayment options on loans up to Rs 5 lakh. It makes bill payments, UPI transactions, and payments both online and offline possible. As opposed to this, Kissht offers instant credit for purchases made at digital points of sale. It collaborates with NBFCs to provide simple loans via a network of over 3,000 physical retailers and more than 50 online retailers spread across 40 cities.
After receiving a notice from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in February of last year, the Kissht website was blocked. The notice targeted over 200 gambling and lending apps, the majority of which seemed to be run out of China. A government official later clarified that this block may have been unintentionally created. When working with similar-sounding apps, it might be the result of an error.
Kissht RING’s parent company saw a decline in FY21, but was able to grow its scale almost twice as much in FY23, reaching Rs 1,020.9 crore from Rs 513.6 crore in FY22. The company’s ESOP-related expenses are the reason for the 5.8% decline in profits to Rs 59 crore in FY23 from Rs 62.6 crore in FY22.
