FinTech payments platform BharatPe raises INR 600 million from InnoVen Capital

By Edil Corneille

InnoVen Capital, Asia’s venture debt and specialty lending firm, recently invested INR 600 million in BharatPe, a FinTech payments platform. The recent investment underlines the firm’s commitment to back promising companies that are disrupting their respective categories.

BharatPe is a merchant focused payments platform that offers merchants a single interface for all existing UPI apps and allows merchants to accept UPI payments for free through the BharatPe QR. It also supports merchants to access credit and other value-added services.

Ashish Sharma, CEO, Innoven Capital India enthused, “We are excited to partner with BharatPe as their first institutional debt provider. BharatPe is not only helping millions of merchants to accept UPI payments seamlessly but also enabling them access to credit, which has been a pain point. This is a massive market and we look forward to being a partner in this ambitious growth agenda.”

Suhail Sameer, Group President, BharatPe apprised, “As we build the lending business at BharatPe, raising institutional debt is important to us. We plan to raise US$ 500-700 million of debt capital over the next 2 years. We are incredibly glad that Innoven Capital are one of our first supporters on this journey. We look forward to working with Innoven to build a long-term win-win relationship.”

InnoVen Capital is Asia’s venture lending firm providing debt capital to high growth ventures. Started in 2008 as a dedicated venture debt provider in India, the platform offers multiple debt capital solutions, including venture debt, acquisition finance, growth loans, and syndication. To date, InnoVen Capital India has completed over 250 transactions with more than 180 start-ups, including Byjus, Swiggy, Oyo Rooms, CureFit, Eruditus, Dailyhunt, FirstCry, PharmEasy, Pepperfry, boAT, Licious, Myntra, Blackbuck, and Rebel Foods, among others.

BharatPe was co-founded by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani in 2018 with the vision to make financial inclusion a reality for merchants.