Fintech Firm Early Salary Raises 110 Mn Funding I Series D Round

EarlySalary, has closed its $110 million Series D funding round led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and Norwest Venture Partners. Existing investor Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Limited also participated in the round. This is EarlySalary’s largest fundraising to date, following the company’s last funding round in 2019. The company had raised $34 million in previous rounds from Eight Roads, Chiratae Ventures, Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Limited and angel investors. The latest investment will enable EarlySalary to grow the business significantly over the next 24 months. The $110 million Series D round includes a secondary sale. Unitus Capital acted as exclusive advisor to the transaction.

Founded in Pune in 2015, EarlySalary has emerged as India’s largest consumer lending fintech, offering affordable financial lending solutions up to Rs. 5 lakhs to working professionals. The company expanded into the affordability segment and introduced Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services to its customer segment with a distinct focus on education, health and consumer product financing. During its journey, EarlySalary expanded its services to over 150 cities and aims to continue expanding its customer base.

EarlySalary’s core purpose is to provide a financial ecosystem for young and ambitious individuals. 80 percent of Indians use banking services, but almost 50 percent of the Indian population does not have access to credit due to various reasons. The focus of EarlySalary is to offer a safe and reliable credit platform to the underserved population, primarily in tier 3 and 4 cities, at affordable rates.

EarlySalary’s extensive product range includes personal loans that are paid in EMIs over multiple periods. The company will continue to grow its BNPL segment and build out an extensive network of partners across the healthcare and edtech segments.

Commenting on this funding, Akshay Mehrotra, Co-Founder and CEO said, “We are humbled by the overwhelming response and support from world-class investors, who support our vision to revolutionize our fintech business. Our aim is to use these funds to to grow our cash business and build a strong set of capabilities to effectively serve a larger segment of customers.We at EarlySalary aim to create India’s largest digital lending ecosystem, meeting the challenges through technology-first solutions, thereby enabling millions of Indians to use timely and quality services through improved affordability. Through this we want to achieve tenfold growth in our customer base.”

To create a superior customer and product experience, the company will continue to focus on improving its technological and analytical frameworks while delivering a high degree of transparency, risk management and customer centricity to achieve its growth plan. Over the past six months, EarlySalary has added key executives across risk, sales, treasury and other functions to strengthen its leadership team.

The company has rapidly expanded its presence from 18 cities to over 150 cities and increased its customer base to 12 million app downloads with approximately 1 million customers. It has grown 7 times in the last two years and has emerged as a market leader in providing financial assistance to young middle income individuals across the country. The business continues to be profitable over the pandemic and expects to grow manifold in the future.