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    Rupeek picks up $34 million in fresh round led by Lightbox

    Synopsis

    The gold loans provider is now valued at $634 million, said a person aware of the talks. Rupeek said it would use the funds to scale further and invest in new products.

    ​Gold loanGetty Images
    Bengaluru: Gold loans provider Rupeek said on Tuesday it has raised $34 million in a fresh round of funding led by Lightbox.

    Existing investors including GGV and Bertelsmann also participated in the funding. The company is now valued at $634 million, said a person aware of the talks. Rupeek said it would use the funds to scale further and invest in new products.

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    The company touched an annual disbursement run rate of $1 billion in December, it said on Tuesday.

    “Rupeek is the first brand that has digitised the entire process of obtaining secured credit against gold holdings, allowing users to get instant credit from the comfort of their homes. Our aim is to set the foundation for tech-led gold monetisation in the country through unique, industry-first innovations and unlock growth and credit for a billion Indians,” said Sumit Maniyar, its founder and chief executive.

    Founded in 2015, Rupeek provides gold loans at consumers' doorsteps. It currently operates in more than 35 cities and competes with Indiagold, which provides digital gold services, apart from gold loans, and was started by former Paytm executives Deepak Abbot and Nitin Misra.

    The company claims it has disbursed loans worth over Rs 6,500 crore to date, and that 55% of its customers are first time borrowers.

    “Fundamentally we felt that there is a huge opportunity in this space and that is one of the key motivators for us. We believe that the innovation Rupeek is working on will help it scale in a sustainable manner. Further, Rupeek can scale much higher in the coming year, owing to the way they are creating customer education while removing the initial inertia in many Indian geographies (around gold-loans),” said Prashant Mehta, partner at Lightbox.

    In March 2021, VEF Ltd. announced that it had invested $7 million in the gold loan provider. Before that, the company had raised $60 million in 2020, across two separate rounds led by GGV Capital, Binny Bansal and Bertelsmann India Investments.
    The Economic Times

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