ShopSe, a buy now pay later (BNPL) startup, has raised $6.1 million in Series A funding from BEENEXT, Chiratae Ventures, and White Venture Capital. White Venture Capital is led by Amrish Rau and Jitendra Gupta.
ShopSe plans to expand its service to 150,000 more merchants and expand its lender connections with the new funds. In addition, the Mumbai-based business aims to spend on establishing a strong staff and expanding platform capabilities.
Pallav Jain, Abhishek Nimonkar, and Yagnesh Desai, all former PayU employees, founded ShopSe in 2020. At the point of purchase, ShopSe’s pay-later marketplace offers fast customized credit solutions. Its platform connects lenders and shops to provide clients with EMI options both online and offline. It provides credit solutions at the point of purchase without requiring any paperwork, instead of analyzing credit eligibility digitally.
The business claims to work with over 120 brands, including Voltas, Asus, Whirlpool, Bluestar, Daikin, and Realme and has over 35,000 retail locations across India. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, and IIFL are among its banking and non-banking financial company (NBFC) partners.
“With the help of our lending partners, we have been able to bring change for 35,000 retailers serving customers in 500+ locations across the country. We are committed to solving for convenient affordability at the point of purchase by working with our partners to build the right digital offerings for the market,” Pallav Jain, ShopSe’s founder, and CEO stated.
Shopse Growth
Last year, Chiratae Ventures and BEENEXT led a $5.5 million seed round for the company. The ShopSe team has grown from 10 to over 300 members since the previous cash campaign, according to the business.
“We’re always on the lookout for innovators in the fintech space. “Our belief in ShopSe’s objective of making shopping accessible for everyday buy has been enhanced by their accelerating product innovation, expanding footprint, and strong customer feedback,” stated Hero Choudhary, managing partner of BEENEXT.
ShopSe is attempting to break into the burgeoning buy now, pay later (BNPL) sector, albeit through a different strategy. Pure play startups such as Simpl, ZestMoney, and MobiKwik, as well as names like Amazon Pay and Ola Postpaid, dominate the BNPL field in India.
According to a recent YouGov research, Indian consumers are more likely than in other markets to utilize BNPL products shortly. In India, around 28% of consumers intend to use BNPL services by April 2023, compared to a global average of 17%.
Fintech market
India’s overall fintech market is estimated to reach $1.3 trillion by 2025, rising at a CAGR of 31% from 2021 to 2025. Furthermore, lending technology is expected to account for 47% of the industry.
In the last several months, the BNPL space in India has seen increased investor interest and acquisitions. Mosambee, a merchant solutions platform, recently acquired Benow, a BNPL-focused fintech business.
The piece did well in the fundraising space as well. Snapmint, a Mumbai-based fintech firm, raised $9 million, while Chennai-based IppoPay raised $2.1 million earlier this year to expand into BNPL while also concentrating on other verticals. Pocketly, a loan platform located in Bengaluru, raised $3 million in March, and BNPL company SaveIN, based in New Delhi, raised $4 million last month.