Fixed income investment startup Jiraaf has raised $8.7 million in its series B round of funding, according to ETtech report.
The round was led by existing investor Accel and Harmony Partners. It also saw participation from domestic early-stage seed fund Capital A and a bunch of angel investors.
Since inception in September 2021, Jiraaf has raised around $16 million.
“We will be using this money to mainly build our team, improve customer service across categories of business and also for originating more customers,” said cofounder Saurav Ghosh.
Given the challenging funding environment, the company decided to restrict its series B round to less than $9 million, he added.
Jiraaf runs a platform which allows retail investors to buy corporate debt issuances and generate average yields of around 12.5%. Investors who have already invested in traditional opportunities like fixed deposits, mutual funds and stock markets can use Jiraaf to create an alternate investment pool by buying corporate bonds.
The average ticket size of these investments is around Rs 1 lakh, which ensures that only consumers who have the capability to invest larger amounts can participate.
Jiraaf offers debts of a large variety of customers like Caratlane, Bizongo, Zetwerk along with traditional corporations like Edelweiss, Jindal Power, Zuari International and others.
“We have already applied for the online bond platform provider licence from the market regulator and we hope to secure the licence very soon,” Ghosh said.
Sebi has mandated that every online bond issuing platform should be licensed by the regulator.
The startup has already deployed around Rs 2,400 crore of capital through the platform and has around 1.5 lakh registered users, a portion of which comprises active investors.
Over the next two years, it intends to deploy Rs 10,000 crore of capital. It is currently at a disbursal run rate of Rs 200 crore per month, which it wants to grow to Rs 500 crore in the next one year.
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