Mintifi: Mintifi secures $180 million from Prosus, others in a mix of primary, secondary capital

Mumbai-based lending platform Mintifi has secured $180 million in a fresh equity funding round. New investors PayU parent Prosus and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) pumped in $80 million each into the company, with another $20 million being invested by Premji Invest, an existing investor.Speaking with ET, Anup Agarwal chief executive officer, Mintifi, said that the round has a combination of $100 million in primary capital and $80 million in secondary infusion. Through the secondary component, Lok Capital, one of the early investors in the company has taken a complete exit, he said. Some liquidity was offered to its employees as well through this round.

Secondary capital is one where money does not go to the company but rather is directed to those who are selling their shareholding in the firm.

“Post the round the company will be valued at around $825 million,” Agarwal said.

Commenting on the fundraise, Deepak Dara, head of India business for OTPP, said: “Mintifi’s distinctive model of providing invoice-backed credit directly to brands, reinforced by robust risk guardrails and a proprietary tech stack, positions it as a leader in India’s supply chain finance landscape.”

Founded in 2017, Mintifi counts the likes of Elevation Capital, International Finance Corporation, and Norwest Venture Partners as its major investors.

Operating in the business credit space, Mintifi works with large brands like Pidilite, Jockey and such, offering credit to their distributors so they can repay the brands on time in lieu of the products they buy from them. The non-banking finance company (NBFC) underwrites their invoices and pays on behalf of these distributors to the brand, recovering the due amount from the distributors within a period of 45 days.“We are deeply integrated with more than 300 brands and thereby we offer credit to around 40,000 small businesses who work with these large brands,” Agarwal said. “To date we have discounted invoices worth Rs 70,000 crore,” he added.

The company has been profitable for the last few years, closing FY2024 with a net profit of Rs 100 crore. It has set a target of Rs 160 crore in net profit for the current fiscal.

Minitifi offers a branch-led model where it has a physical presence in around 80 cities. It has built an asset base of Rs 2,600 crore with net bad loans hovering around 1%.

“We are disbursing around Rs 2,000 crore monthly,” he said.