Xiaomi leads funding round in ZestMoney

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi seems to be eyeing the Indian fintech space. In what would be its second investment in the space in less than a year, it has now led a funding round in ZestMoney, India’s largest online transactional credit provider.

Run by Camden Town Technologies Pvt Ltd, ZestMoney on Monday said it raised $13.4 million in a new round of extended Series A funding, led by Xiaomi. PayU previously led the company's Series A investment, and the Xiaomi investment is a follow-on to this, with participation from all three existing investors --- PayU, Ribbit Capital and Omidyar Network. With this round, ZestMoney has raised $22 million in funding from investors.

The company plans to use the money to strengthen its tech and data science capabilities as well as expand use cases for the core ZestMoney Affordability Product, making it the digital consumer's preferred lifestyle financing solution.

"We are very excited to have Xiaomi as an investor in the company, given the success they have had in building digital credit products in China. They have built one of the most-loved brands in India and have a passionately consumer-focussed philosophy, which deeply resonated with our values as a company" said Lizzie Chapman, co-founder and chief executive, ZestMoney.

Bengaluru-based ZestMoney was founded in 2015 by digital finance and technology professionals Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman.

The investment in ZestMoney from Xiaomi comes nearly a year after the two co-launched Mi Finance, enabling Mi customers in India to Xiaomi products via a cardless EMI. ZestMoney also works with digital consumer partners, including Amazon, Flipkart, UpGrad and Zefo. This year they will expand into travel and health care as well as create additional flexible credit products to suit each stage of a user’s life.

ZestMoney gets 300,000 applications per month, and is currently approving a loan every seven seconds ranging from Rs 129 to Rs 4 lakhs, the startup said in a statement.

ZestMoney has developed a technology platform for small-ticket, automated loan disbursal, including an artificial intelligence (AI)-based decision engine. A few weeks ago, it acquired PhotographA I, an image-based AI company, to further strengthen its technology capabilities.

Xiaomi made its entry in the Indian fintech space last year after leading an $8 million funding round in KrazyBee, a tech based micro-lending platform. These investments are a part of Xiaomi Corp’s plans to invest as much as $1 billion in India across 100 startups over the next five years.