Lentra, an Indian Fintech SaaS startup, has closed a $60 million Series B funding round led by existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Susquehanna International Group (SIG) Venture Capital, with participation from Citi Ventures.
“We see a massive opportunity for ourselves in the retail assets and business banking areas worldwide. Simultaneously, our clients see us as a source of competitive advantage for their company,” said D Venkatesh, Founder and CEO of Lentra.
“Our solution architecture is marked by ten-fold revenue growth and some of the largest retail banks as clients.” “I am thrilled that our investors see the same opportunity and believe in our ability to execute,” D Venkatesh added.
Lentra plans to use the funds to expand into five countries next year, including the United States, beginning with Vietnam and the Philippines in the spring. Furthermore, the startup will invest in product development and platform enhancements.
“Lentra is our first fintech investment in India, and we are very excited about the team’s ability to develop and scale low-friction software solutions for lenders,” said Everett Leonidas, Director and APAC Lead Investor for Citi Ventures. As a global bank, we anticipate Lentra’s products and platform expanding internationally.”
Lentra is looking for suitable acquisitions moving ahead
Lentra, founded in 2019 and based in Pune, will also look for acquisitions in the payment processing and data insights and management sectors.
Lentra acquired TheDataTeam (TDT), an Indian startup that developed a customer intelligence platform for banks and financial institutions to assess customer creditworthiness earlier this year.
Lentra Lending Cloud provides ready-to-use third-party API connectors to various data sources banks want to connect to.
Several pre-configured loan journeys for originations, a loan management system, cutting-edge customer intelligence, and a no-code business rules engine (BREx) are necessary modules that clients can use immediately. Depending on their needs, clients can use all or some of these modules.
“Lentra is empowering lenders to fuel the dreams of millions with effective financial inclusion and credit decisions,” said Vishal Gupta, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners.
“We were impressed with their technical prowess and the commercial advantage Lentra delivers to their clients. We look forward to helping them continue to achieve their vision of becoming the most trusted and sought-after cloud-native digital lending platform,” he added.
According to the startup, Lentra currently has 50 clients in India for its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) lending solution, which is powered by artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and blockchain technologies.
According to the startup, Lentra’s API-driven modular architecture helps banks create tailored lending products and customer experiences with an astounding 96 percent straight-through processing (STP) rate.