Venture Catalysts invests in P2P lending platform LenDenClub

By Sainul Abudheen K for e27

LenDen Club connects individual who wants to earn higher returns to those who want to borrow money with transparency and low cost

Venture Catalysts, a network of angel investors and a seed investment and innovation platform in India, has invested an undisclosed sum in peer-to-peer lending platform LenDenClub.

The investors who participated in the round include Anirudh Damani, Daud Ali, Narendra Carnival, Vikas Kapoor, Vikram Lakhotia, Krishna Jhunjhunwaala and Jayesh Shah.

LenDenClub plans to utilise the seed funds to enhance the platform and create an end-to-end online lending process.

Bhavin Patel, Co-founder and CEO, LenDen Club, said: “We wanted to bring traditional lending on digital platform. Securing seed funding at such a nascent stage gives us the boost we have been looking for. This will allow us to further improve the platform and reach out to more users. Eventually, we hope to become one of the most widely accessed peer-to-peer lending platforms.”

Founded in 2014 by Patel and Dipesh Karki (CTO), LenDenClub is a fintech startup connecting salaried borrowers to individual lenders. Currently operating as a web-based platform, LenDenClub considers a combination of traditional and non-traditional data points to validate the credit-worthiness of the lender.

The startup claims to have arranged more than 150 loans till date.

“Unstructured P2P lending has been going on for centuries and while the world has moved on to structured P2P lending the space is at a nascent stage in India but the demand for such a platform is quite high. Which is why LenDen club has solid prospects as it concentrates on creating a good supply of borrowers for yield/return hungry (small or large) investors who are flush with liquidity. We are excited to invest in LenDen and will follow-on in later rounds,” said Damani.

LenDenClub mainly competes with VCs-backed Chillr, Citrus Payments and Faircent.

Venture Catalysts is a an innovation platform which adds value to startups through its angel network, venture fund, co-working facility and post-investment support. Founded by Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Anuj Golecha and Anil Jain, Venture Catalysts brings a combination of capital, mentoring and business network to help startups.

The network is looking to have about 800-1000 active angels onboard its platform in the near future.