LendLedger Announcements: Sister Company Happy Raises $20 Million To Make New Loans in India
Financing will reach up to 1 million new borrowers in current fiscal year
Two years ago LendLedger cofounders Gautam Ivatury and Manish Khera devised a new way to lend. With over 30 years of experience in financial services the pair devised a cutting edge way to make loans relying on verifiable digital data: this was Happy.
After moving from strength to strength with this novel lending model, the two decided to expand Happy’s lending onto a global scale using blockchain and began to build the LendLedger network.
Happy Loans has served as the first LendLedger lender with all its transactions recorded on the LendLedger network. In its first two years of operations, Happy has disbursed over $20 million (INR 140 crore) through over 32,000 loans to more than 80 different kinds of businesses, with most loans taking only minutes from application to disbursal.
Now Happy is proud to announce $20 million in fresh capital to grow its AI-powered lending model, making flexible digital loans to micro and small business in over 500 locations across India. Looking at 1 million loans in the coming couple of years is $500m of lending volume; a meaningful first step in moving towards LendLedger’s goal of $1 trillion in loan disbursals.
The funding announced today includes a mix of equity from Indian and US strategic investors, and financing lines from institutions including DMI, a leading India-based non-bank finance company. Happy’s latest investors have recognized the company’s unique access to more than 2.5 million potential small borrowers across India through partnerships with nearly 20 payment networks.
Besides growing the lending operation, Happy will also expand the power of its innovative technology platform, which today enables instant API-driven lending with over 20 partners. The platform is designed for the simplest customer experience and instant availability of credit through standardized technical integrations with partners, machine-learning based credit decisions, and loan records on blockchain through LendLedger. Happy sees itself at the beginning of a journey to deepen its relationships with its customers, by combining data, fintech, and an unmatched understanding of micro- and small business finance.
