Mumbai: BharatNXT, a B2B Fintech platform in the financial technology sector, has raised USD 1.2 million in a Seed Round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The round also saw participation from Japanese VC – Spiral Ventures, Keiretsu Forums, and Panthera Peak Capital. The funds will be utilised to invest in product development, expand the team size by 4x, and enhance the core technology’s scalability to accommodate ten times the current growth.
- BharatNXT is a payment platform that enables SMEs to use their existing credit cards more valuable by allowing the cards to be used to make business payments that were not possible earlier, thus providing additional days of much-needed credit flexibility for SMEs every month.
- The funds will be utilised to invest in product development, expand the team, and enhance the scalability of the technology.
- Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) has so far invested over INR 550 Cr across 170+ deals.
The funds will be further used to implement top-notch governance systems such as PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and ISO 9001 and to introduce effective risk management practices and controls to ensure optimal outcomes.
Ankur Mittal, Co-Founder & COO of Inflection Point Ventures, says, “Over the last decade, India has witnessed a significant rise in digital transactions across sectors. However, credit card usage has been low among Indian SMEs, with credit utilisation typically ranging around 15% to 20% of allocated limits. Entrepreneurs with good CIBIL scores with credit cards with pre-approved limits still don’t have easy access to formal credit to manage their working capital. This is where BharatNXT steps in and provides an avenue via their platform for these entrepreneurs to make business payments like GST, Vendor Payments, Utility, Rent and much more. This provides these entrepreneurs real-time and paperless access to precious credit at low costs if timed well while unlocking precious additional payment days based on their credit card cycles.”
BharatNXT has a highly experienced and competent team that has the ability to attract and retain top talent in the industry. Furthermore, their technology platform is scalable and has already been designed to accommodate ten times the current growth. Given the data-rich nature of their business, the company is well-positioned to explore newer business models focused on inclusion & credit in the future.
Founded in 2022, BharatNXT is a payment platform that allows small and medium-sized businesses to use credit cards for their B2B transactions. This provides a credit extension of 45-50 days. The platform is integrated with various portals, which allow for instant or T+1 settlements for all business payments, including GST, utility, and vendor payments. By doing this, it helps SMEs manage their cash flows better.
At the point that IPV invested in Jan 2023, the founders of BharatNXT, Akshat and Aljo had already facilitated payments close to INR 50 crore for approximately 10,000 SMEs. Since then the company has already grown 30x and has processed approximately 4 lakh transactions, which involve at least 6 million backend computations with 100% accuracy. Moreover, the company has a high on-time settlement ratio of 99.7%, indicating its commitment to timely and efficient customer payment processing.
Akshat Birla, Founder & CEO of BharatNXT, says, “We have hit hockey stick growth, crossed Rs. 1500+ Cr in GTV and expect to be doing Rs. 1000+ Cr per month by the end of FY 23”.
Aljo Joseph, Founder & CBO, is working towards diversifying revenue streams, building trust and stickiness with transacting customers, and believes “We should be running a profitable company in the next 2 quarters, and closing FY 23 with Rs 100+ Cr in revenue.”
BharatNXT operates in an industry with significant potential for growth. The market for business payments made on credit cards is projected to reach $200-300 billion in the next three to five years. Less than 2% of the $1.4 trillion B2B spends are made using credit cards. Furthermore, there is a significant amount of unused credit limit on credit cards, with approximately $750 billion out of the $900 billion annual allocation remaining unutilised. Bankers estimate that approximately 25-30% of these unutilised credit limits belong to SMEs.
