/indianstartupnews/media/agency_attachments/s1FnhAYONODoxNkoC8xA.png)
Follow Us/indianstartupnews/media/media_files/JmZtupXR8h451UlkX1ZX.png)
BharatNXT Founders Aljo Joseph and Akshat Birla
BharatNXT, a B2B Fintech platform in the financial technology sector, has raised $1.2 million in a seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures, with participation from Japanese VC - Spiral Ventures, Keiretsu Forums, and Panthera Peak Capital.
According to the company's statement, The raised capital will be utilized to invest in product development and expand the team size by 4x and enhance the scalability of the core technology to accommodate ten times the current growth.
The startup will also focus on implementing top-notch governance systems such as PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and ISO 9001 and introduce effective risk management practices and controls to ensure optimal outcomes.
Founded in 2022 by Aljo Joseph and Akshat Birla, BharatNXT is a payment platform that allows small and medium-sized businesses to use credit cards for their B2B transactions. The startup 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.
Ankur Mittal, Co-Founder & COO of Inflection Point Ventures, said, “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 that already have 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”
Till January 2023, The startup said that it facilitated payments of nearly Rs 50 crore for approximately 10,000 SMEs. Since then, It claims to have grown 30x and has processed approximately 4 lakh transactions, which involve at least 6 million backend computations with 100% accuracy.
Akshat Birla, Founder & CEO, BharatNXT, said, “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. Currently, 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 unutilized. Bankers estimate that approximately 25-30% of these unutilized credit limits belong to SMEs, it said.
Also Read: