An exciting fintech startup announced the eleventh unicorn startup of the year 2022

An exciting fintech startup announced the eleventh unicorn startup of the year 2022

A new unicorn startup is announced! The startup belongs to the fintech industry. What a splendid piece of news it is. 

Let us talk about unicorn startups. The term unicorn for startups was given by a venture capitalist, Aileen Lee, who is also the founder of Cowboy Ventures and is based in Palo Alto, California. The term unicorn in financial terms means that privately-owned startup the value of which is more than USD 1 billion.

Aileen Lee gave the term unicorns to such startups because at that time there were very few such startups present. So to owe to the scarcity of such startups at that time, the term unicorn was given. The term was given in the year 2013 and at that time just 39 such startups were present which were considered unicorns. 

Some of the features which are present commonly in all the unicorn startups are-
First mover advantage– Unicorn startups bring something to the market. They have the first-mover advantage. They bring in something which has not been thought of. Like if we talk about a unicorn startup, Airbnb. It had the first-mover advantage in the market as it bought something new in the housing industry. 

Innovation– Unicorn startups bring innovation to the market. They bring a solution to the already existing problem which was there in the market for a long time and no other business had thought of. Like Ola bought an innovation in the car renting industry, a problem which was there in the market. 

Technology-enabled– All the unicorn startups are enabled with technology. They use complex and sophisticated technology and thus bring a change in the industry.
Privately Owned- Most of the unicorn startups are owned by private entrepreneurs. With private holding, the round of funding becomes easy and quick. 

Some of the biggest unicorn startups till now are- SpaceX, Stripe, Byju’s, Grammarly, Dream 11, Facebook, Ola, Airbnb, and many others. 

Let us now discuss the fintech industry. Finance + technology= fintech industry. The fintech industry refers to the use of technology in order to bring a change in the domain of finance. The fintech industry is bringing disruption in the traditional field of finance. If we talk about the fintech industry, our country is the fastest growing country in the domain of finance.

We have more than 2100 fintech startups in the country, more than 67% of the startups were formed in the last 5 years. The value of the Indian fintech industry in the year 2020 was USD 50-60 billion and it is expected to grow to USD 150 billion by the year 2025. 

India is witnessing a rapid increase in unicorn fintech startups. Some of the unicorn startups which are from the fintech industry are- Paytm, Razorpay, Pine Labs, CRED, BharatPe, Digit Insurance, PolicyBazaar, and many others. There are around 11 fintech startups that have achieved the status of unicorn startups.  Let us now talk about the declaration of the unicorn startup of the fintech industry that has taken place recently. 

Announcement of a new unicorn fintech startup 

The startup, CredAvenue has raised funds worth USD 137 million, as announced on March 06, 2022. This round of funding that has taken place was a Series B round of funding and was led by insight Partners, B Capital Group, and Dragoneer Investment Group. The startup plans to use the funds raised in building on its collection infrastructure. After this round of funding, the total funds raised by the startup have come up to USD 227 million. 

The startup before this round of funding had raised USD 90 million in funds in September 2021. That round of funding was the Series A round of funding and was led by Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, TVS Capital, and Light rock. The value of the startup after that round of funding was USD 410 million. The value of the startup after the current round of funding has increased 3 times and reached USD 1.3 billion, thus entering the famous “Unicorn Club”. The startup has thus become the eleventh unicorn startup of the year 2022. 

About the newly announced unicorn fintech startup 

Founded in the year 2021 by Gaurav Kumar and Vineet Sukumar and has its headquarters in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, CredAvenue was formed as a subsidiary company of Vivriti Capital, which is a financial services marketplace. The startup is engaged in powering credit and powering growth, ambition, and dreams by unified lending infrastructure and an online marketplace for all things debt.

The startup boasts that it has one platform that can solve many problems as it also lays down the seamless debt journey from start to end, which is as follows-
Step1- Discovery of Partners
Step2- Execute Deals
Step3- Manage Portfolio
Step4- Trade Securities
Step5- Empower Collection 

The startup offers five products that have the aim to reshape the traditional lending mechanism and offer new ways of digital credit facilitation. The products are as follows-
Co-Lending– The co-lending platform helps the banks and NBFCs discover a wide array of lending partners and disburse joint loans to the borrowers helping both parties maximize credit cards.
Loans- It provides access to a network of more than 500 lenders and more than 2000 borrowers and a full digitalized lending lifecycle, right from loan origination to disbursement and monitoring.

Pools- It allows a platform from a large curation of ABS, MBS, and TLE transactions that meet the needs of the customers as its revolutionary securitization platform, thus executing deals and monitoring its portfolio with its advanced AI engine.

Bonds- The bonds platform of the startup facilitates the discovery and trading of exclusive fixed income securities, enabling the customers to make prudent investments by providing a complete data overview.
Supply chain finance– The supply chain finance marketplace of the startup has its focus on anchors provides instant access to funds for the working capital needs of both the suppliers as well as the dealers and distributors, ensuring business never stops. 

The startup is trusted by lending banking partners and more than 500 lenders like Union Bank of India, SBI, HDFC Bank, CSB Bank, Kotak Bank, Federal Bank, ICICI Bank, Muthoot Fincorp, YES Bank, and many others. The startup has given more than USD 10.5 billion in loans and more than 2300 corporates, 450 enterprises, and 750 lenders are active on the platform of the startup.

About Insight Partners 

Founded in the year 1995 by Jeff Horing and Jerry Murdock and has its headquarters in New York, United States, Insight Partners is a venture capital and private equity firm. The focus of Insight Partners has been growth-stage technology, software, and internet business. The venture capital firm has been on the list of Forbes Midas List, Forbes 30 under 30, and the Private Equity International Awards: PEI 300. It has more than 150 employees and assets under management are worth USD 30 billion. 

About B Capital Group 

With headquarters in Manhattan Beach, CA, United States, B Capital Group is a multi-stage global investment firm that is engaged in coming into partnership with extraordinary entrepreneurs. It invests in companies transforming large traditional industries and provides founders with the support they need to scale fast, expand into new markets and build exceptional companies. It provides various funding strategies which are tailored to the needs of the startup at any stage of the growth cycle. 

B Capital Group has a focus on the companies working in the industries of enterprise software, consumer enablement, financial services, healthcare, and industrial and transportation. The portfolio of B Capital Group consists of companies like Appify, Bounce, Byju’s, Centivo, Data Robot, Glean, Highspot, Kandji, Lively, Percent, Pendo, TRM, Stord, Ula, Uplift, Yalo, Zipmex, and many others. 

About Dragoneer Investment Group 

Founded in the year 2012 by Marc Stad and having its headquarters in San Francisco, California, United States, Dragoneer Investment Group is a hedge fund and a venture capitalist. Dragoneer Investment Group has its focuses on technology companies that are both private and public and have their presence around the world. The Assets Under Management of the venture capital firm are worth USD 19 billion. 

The portfolio of Dragoneer Investment Group consists of companies like Airbnb, CRED, Discord, Domo, Gusto, Klarna, Discord, Snapchat, Procore, Uber, Spotify, UiPath, Teabox, Wealthfront, Instacart, Glassdoor, Etsy, and many others. 

The unicorn startup is providing its services in a market that is much undeserved. We wish the startup a stroke of good luck and hope it has a shining and prosperous future ahead!