Chqbook, a neobank for small business owners, has raised INR 400 million in a pre-series B round for ramping up user acquisition and strengthening technology. The equity round was led by existing investor Aavishkaar Capital and the Rajiv Dadlani Group. It also saw participation from Earlsfield Capital U.K., and Family Offices and HNI investors including Jeremy Lim, Bhupesh Kumar, Nilesh Srivastava, and others.
Vipul Sharma, Founder & CEO, Chqbook, said, “Through 2020, we built our multi-product stack and launched products which are now witnessing huge demand from the small business community. This has given us the confidence to double down and provide our customers access to banking, credit, and insurance. Across the country, over the next ten years, we expect small businesses to grow exponentially. In addition, the adoption of 5G services will expand the scope of services customers can access. At Chqbook, we are committed to solving for this community and aim to lend over INR 300 Billion, open 1 million accounts, and insure 10 million customers, over the next few years. Early days yet, but the accounts, credit, and insurance gap are so wide that the opportunity will require multiple players to join this movement.”
Rajiv Dadlani, from the Family Office of the Rajiv Dadlani Group, said, “The Founders having a strong pedigree and tremendous collective experience in the Fintech, Banking, Insurance industry, have built a robust management team and are doing a splendid job. There is a huge, inherent and unmet need for Chqbook’s products amongst small business owners, all over India. We are very impressed with their holistic strategy of leveraging technology and being a multi-product and multilingual app, which is truly complementing. Given their vision and strong execution, also neobanking being at a nascent stage in India, with huge growth potential, we are glad to partake as long-term investors, and support them in their amazing journey forward.”
Aakash Agrawal, Earlsfield Capital, said, “Earlsfield Capital has been focussed on investing in technology companies that are digitally transforming conventional sectors. There is a large opportunity in providing financial products and services to small businesses in India & SE Asia, which has largely been ignored by existing lending institutions/banks due to lack of infrastructure and unavailability of credit history, among other factors. We are excited to partner with and support the team at Chqbook through their growth, as they build a mobile-first financial ecosystem focussed on small business owners, with the potential to impact millions of MSMEs that form the backbone of India’s growing economy.”
Arya has been a part of the Content & Research Team at Hrnxt.com. She is a keen observer of economic developments, emerging businesses, people in business and keeps a tab on latest happenings in the business environment.