California and India-based financial technology startup Drip Capital has raised $15 million (about Rs 100 crore) in a new round of funding from venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as a new investor, with participation from existing backers Accel Partners, Wing VC and Y Combinator who have also invested $5M in a previous seed round in January 2017.  

Drip has disbursed over $100M of trade flows across industries in the last 18 months of operation in India. The company now plans to use this funding to scale up operations in India and replicate the model in other geographies. It is currently looking at entering Latin America and Southeast Asia. It has also secured an undisclosed amount of debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and other entities. 

“With a partner like Drip Capital, emerging market exporters now never need to say ‘no’ to a new order due to working capital constraints”, says Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors. “This offers a huge boost to small and medium businesses which play such a significant role in India’s trade network and Sequoia India is proud to partner with Neil and Pushkar on this journey.” 

Jeff Schneble, Partner at Wing VC says, “With a cross border presence and expertise in data science and credit, we believe Drip’s team is well-positioned to capitalize on the global trade finance opportunity.”

Founded by Wharton school alums Pushkar Mukewar and Neil Kothari in 2014, Drip Capital is focusing on solving the working capital problem for SME exporters using technology. Drip’s working capital offering to exporters is a credit line, which ranges from $100K to $2.5 million, depending on the exporter’s size and requirement. Exporters can apply to Drip by completing a 10-minute online application, requiring minimal paperwork. It also assesses the risk of the buyer, using electronic data and automated risk assessment platforms.

Other Indian players who are also operating in the SME lending space are Capital Float, Lendingkart, Namaste Credit, and Cash Suvidha among others. 

US-based early stage tech-focused venture capital fund, Wing VC is founded by former managing partner at Accel Partner, Peter Wagner and former partner at Sequoia Capital, Gaurav Garg.