B2B fintech Enkash raises $20 million funding led by Ascent Capital
The Economic Times, Bhavya Dilipkumar, 4 April 2022
Bengaluru: Corporate spend management startup Enkash has raised $20 million in a new round of funding, led by Ascent Capital along with Baring India Private Equity Partners and Singapore-based White Ventures, backed by fintech entrepreneurs Amrish Rau and Jitendra Gupta.
Other existing backers Mayfield India and Axilor Ventures also participated in the funding round.
The fintech startup operates a payments management platform for enterprises like issuing corporate cards.
The Mumbai-based firm plans to utilise the capital to expand its offerings around banking-as-a-service, scaling up its ‘plug and play’ cards issuance stack and its geographical presence.
We intend to make our presence globally, especially in MENA (Middle East/North Africa) and Southeast Asian countries with the current investment...most of the investment will also go into product and technology development and hiring and scaling up in India,” co-founder Hemant Vishnoi told ET.
The corporate spend management market in India is pegged at $500 billion, Vishnoi said.
“We will also expand further in capturing the market in India,” he added.
Enkash is planning to offer a better experience and accessibility of financial and non-financial products for businesses.
“On the non-financial side, we have started something called the rewards points where we make sure special discounts are being offered to Enkash customers. And there are other products that are in the beta stage,” Vishnoi said.
The average annualised spend rate of Enkash is around $2 billion.
Enkash has around 70,000 businesses and 500,000 issued cards. It previously raised $3 million, led by Mayfield and Axilor Ventures in Series A funding in 2019. The company was seed-funded by Axilor Ventures.
“We have deployed more than 500,000 corporate cards to date. And our purchase cards are typically like a BNPL offering. The company has partnered with three NBFCs as of now,” Vishnoi said.
Enkash was founded in 2017 by former Citrus Pay executives- Naveen Bindal, Hemant Vishnoi and Yadvendra Tyagi. In 2016, PayU had acquired its smaller rival Citrus in an all-cash deal valuing the Mumbai-based online payments platform at $130 million.
“Small to medium-size market in India is bigger and the need for better product is required for the financial and non-financial segment,” Vishnoi said.
The company is targeting MSMEs and businesses that report between Rs 10 crore and Rs 1,000 crore that are not served by bigger banks or neo-banks.
“Enkash has stepped up to democratize access to the best-in-class software and payments. We believe that Enkash is poised to continue leading this growing $500 billion-plus market,” said Subhasis Majumder, partner at Ascent Capital.
