India’s ZestMoney Raises $20m to Grow Its Digital Lending Service
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
By Jon Russell
Fintech is very much still hot in Asia. ZestMoney, a startup that helps consumers with no credit history get loans to buy online, announced today it has raised a $20 million Series B.
The round is led by Quona Capital, a stealthy Washington-based fund that invests in emerging market fintech and has an office in India. Others participating included new backer Reinventure, an Australian fund which includes Coinbase among its fintech portfolio, as well as returning investors Ribbit Capital, Omidyar Network and Naspers -owned PayU. The round takes ZestMoney to $42 million to date, it previously raised a $13.4 million ‘Series A2’ led by Chinese phone giant Xiaomi last August.
ZestMoney was founded in 2015 by Lizzie Chapman (its CEO), Priya Sharma (CFO/COO) and Ashish Anantharaman (CTO). The trio met working at Wonga after Chapman moved to India from the UK to head up the controversial pay-day loan company’s local business. That venture ended up falling through and the rest is history, as they say.
Photo courtesy of Meena Kadri.
Source: TechCrunch (link opens in a new window)
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