Lentra, an Indian embedded AI-based finance startup, has raised $60 million a Series B that values the startup at over $400 million.
This is Citi Ventures’ first investment in a fintech out of India, and this round overall underscores how far the fintech and embedded finance ecosystem have come along in recent years. Lentra, which is profitable, has been growing at a very fast clip. In 2019, its first year of operations, it registered $1 million from its “annual consumption rate” this term relates to the amount of revenue Lentra makes based on usage of its APIs. As of this year, that figure is up to $10 million, and it is projected to hit $100 million in 2024.
The company’s mission is not unlike that of a number of other fintechs that have thrown their hats into the ring to work with rather than completely upend and disrupt legacy financial services providers, which have found themselves unable to keep up with innovation from faster moving, tech-based competitors.
The four-year-old fintech helps them do this through a variety of loan tools. Lentra Lending Cloud, which gives ready-to-use third-party API connectors to various data sources, as well as a Loan Management System (LMS) and a no-code Business rules engine (BREx) with modules for clients to use out-of-the-box. The startup also has a platform called GoNoGo in its catalog that helps banks ascertain whether a loan should be given to a customer once they get their application.
Lentra already has its presence in Singapore since it acquired an AI startup TheDataTeam in June this year that had an office in the Lion City. Venkatesh said that the office in Singapore would become the vehicle for the startup to go into the ASEAN economies.
Alongside improving the offering and expanding the business, Lentra has plans to acquire complementary businesses.