Apis in talks to again fintech Cash View at $1 billion valuation regardless of market hunch • TechCrunch

India’s Cash View is in talks to lift a brand new spherical of funding at a unicorn valuation, two sources aware of the matter instructed TechCrunch, in a lift to the native fintech neighborhood that has been rattled by the central financial institution’s stringent tips and funding crunch in latest months.

Apis Companions is deliberating main a funding spherical of about $125 million to $150 million within the Bengaluru-headquartered startup at a valuation of about $1 billion, the sources mentioned. The spherical, a Sequence E, hasn’t been finalized, so phrases of the deal should change, the sources cautioned, requesting anonymity talking about nonpublic info.

Apis Companions, Cash View and the startup’s founders didn’t reply to a request for remark Wednesday night native time.

The eight-year-old startup, which was valued at $615 million in a Sequence D funding spherical in March this yr, affords lending to people who can’t avail credit score from banks and different monetary establishments. The startup has mentioned previously that almost all of its clients reside in small Indian cities and cities.

“India is among the most underserved giant economies relating to entry to credit score. Greater than 70% of the credit score supplied by banks is just given to the highest 10% of prosperous Indians,” it describes on its web site.

“Probably the most underserved segments are individuals who earn lower than 5L [$6,070] a yr. Cash View goals to bridge this credit score hole by offering personalised mortgage affords for its clients by means of its strong knowledge and threat evaluation mannequin. The corporate’s proprietary knowledge fashions present a 360-degree threat evaluation, enabling credit score for the underserved segments.”

Cash View — which counts Ribbit Capital, Tiger International and Accel amongst its present backers — has been worthwhile for over a yr, its founder Puneet Agarwal mentioned in a press assertion in Could, and was on tempo to clock an annualized income run charge of about $80 million.

“Within the age of money burning companies, we’re one of many only a few fintech startups to be worthwhile for greater than a yr now,” Agarwal mentioned in a press launch in Could.

Its new funding deliberations come at a time when the dealflow exercise has slowed down dramatically within the South Asian market as traders develop cautious of writing new checks and consider their underwriting fashions after valuations of publicly listed corporations take a tumble.

Indian startups raised $3 billion within the quarter that led to September, down 57% from the earlier quarter and 80% year-over-year, in keeping with market intelligence platform Tracxn.