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Trade fintech firm Drip Capital has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by venture capital firm Accel Partners, with participation from existing investors Sequoia India, Wing VC and Y Combinator, in exchange for a minority stake.
The new investors in this round were GC1 Ventures and institutional investor platform Trusted Insight. Following this, Drip Capital has raised a total of $45 million in equity funding and $55 million in debt.
“We intend to use the funding for global expansion as we foray into additional markets in South-East Asia. The second area would be to continue to focus on our existing markets and on our products and team, and developing new products and services,” said Pushkar Mukewar, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Drip Capital said.
The Palo Alto-headquartered company which has a major presence in India, works with exporters in India, Mexico, UAE and the US (where it raises all its debts).
“In the next 12 months we will look at entering two-three more countries, which we are yet to iron out. These could be in South-East Asia,” he added.
The company was founded in 2014 in the US by entrepreneurs Mukewar and Neil Kothari, who is also a co-CEO.
The company, which provides working capital finance for global trade transactions, has a team of 120 personnel with offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi, and three global offices.
The company had raised $20 million in a Seed round and a Series A from companies such as Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital India and early stage incubator Y Combinator among others.
The exit options for the investors could be either a strategic sale or a potential Initial Public Offering or bringing in a large PE investor to buy out the existing investor, Mukewar said.
“Trade finance is an age-old paper-based industry dominated by banks that primarily focus on large, established corporate customers. Hence, small businesses, despite accounting for 50 per cent of merchandise exports from India, remain largely neglected. Our mission is to level the playing field for these small business exporters, not just in India but across emerging markets around the world,” Mukewar added.
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