LenDenClub Alpha launches program to invest in rural Indian fintech startups

The aim is to give an impetus to fledgling entrepreneurs in the fintech space across India. The initiative will focus on guiding, mentoring and supporting these start-ups to accelerate their growth. A corpus of ₹ 2 crores for investment has been set up for this programme.

LenDenClub Alpha is a venture capital (CVC) fund from LenDenClub, India’s leading Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending platform.

Speaking at the launch, Bhavin Patel, Co-Founder and CEO of LenDenClub said, “There is huge potential in rural India around startup innovation. With the Bharat Fintech programme, we are on a mission to identify the most innovative businesses emerging from Bharat. We talks about bringing the impact to the lives of 800 million living in 6 lakh villages across the geographical expanse of the country.We currently have a significant portion of users coming from Tier 2 cities, semi urban and rural areas in our P2P business. We believe that we can expand the services offered by us with the support of our invested companies. The ultimate goal is to improve rural livelihoods.”

Over 850 million people (65%) of the total population live in non-metro cities, often referred to as ‘Bharat’. By reaching the roots of the country to find talent and innovation, LenDenClub Alpha, as a platform, is uplifting startups in need. The rural fintech program is one such way of mobilizing start-ups from smaller cities and giving them the same support that Tier 1 cities get. The program focuses on incubating and accelerating early-stage startups that develop innovative solutions to benefit “Bharat’s” underserved communities.

Rajat Sinha, Principal, LenDenClub Alpha, said, “The Bharat Fintech program is an endeavor by LenDenClub to promote innovation and inclusion. Most start-ups, especially from non-metro cities and remote cities, do not have access to capital, proper support and guidance to develop a new product and launch it; we aim to solve this problem through the program. And we hope that our investment corpus will contribute to nation building by increasing the fintech startup ecosystem. LenDenClub Alpha along with Artha Venture Fund and Unicorn India Ventures recently invested USD 1.5 million in the no-code platform Hubbler. LenDenClub also plans to offer its expertise to these startups, and will help its invested startups through technological upgrading, driving customer acquisition and building innovative products for the masses, among others.”

LenDenClub Alpha will focus on fintech startups across domains such as payments 4.0, regtech, wealthtech, insurtech, digital lending, banking solutions and emerging technologies (AI/ML/IoT). Shortlisting of start-ups will be done by assessing their applications based on the contributions. Location will not be a limitation in this case. All start-ups from all over the country are encouraged to apply. LenDenClub Alpha, in partnership with Startup Reseau, will host nationwide activation sessions and hackathons to raise awareness of the initiative. They will be mentored and incubated for 3 months, with the end result that a select few will be funded by the end of FY ’22.

Speaking about the launch of the program, Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Founder and CEO, Startup Réseau added: “This is a FinTech partnership that we are very excited about – as LenDenClub seeks to invest its resources in enabling the next generation of startups to solve for next generation startups.mile/next hurdle in the fast growing Bharat FinTech ecosystem.It’s a win-win for LenDenClub and startups from emerging startup hubs being selected for the program.Founder/Leader Perspectives, Business Insights, Market Access and Investments are a great added value for startups. We look forward to the upcoming roadshows and startups applying for the program.”

To amplify the program’s reach, LenDenClub Alpha will run startup engagements in states like Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Rajasthan, along with the capital city of India i.e. Delhi.