BharatPe was previously valued at over $900 million barely nine months ago. Of the $370 million, the secondary component is $20 million, giving an opportunity for its angel investors and employees to cash out.
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BharatPe, a startup that provides merchant payments solutions and other financial services, said it has raised $370 million in its Series E round led by Tiger Global, making it the latest entrant to the unicorn club, as the funding frenzy continues in India’s startup ecosystem.
The new round values BharatPe at $2.85 billion, making it the 19th Indian startup to become a ‘unicorn’ this year, a term used to refer to privately valued startups that have a valuation of over $1 billion dollars.
The other investors in the round included Dragoneer Investor Group, Steadfast Capital, Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital and Amplo.
BharatPe was previously valued at over $900 million barely nine months ago. Of the $370 million, the secondary component is $20 million, giving an opportunity for its angel investors and employees to cash out.
The company will use the funds to grow its core business and capitalise Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on June 18 had granted ‘in-principle approval to Centrum Financial Services Limited and BharatPe to set up a small finance bank (SFB), paving the way for the entity to take over the crisis-ridden PMC Bank.
BharatPe’s co-founder Ashneer Grover had said then that his first agenda was to get the bank up and running and that he was hopeful this would happen by the fourth quarter of calendar year 2021. As part of this, BharatPe and Centrum would pump in $250-$300 million over the next two years.
Ashneer also created a buzz in the startup ecosystem when he announced that BharatPe would dole out BMW superbikes and a workcation in Dubai to lure engineers, at a time when the war for talent is heating up in the space.
