EaseMyTrip co-founder Prashant Pitti’s NBFC Optimo Capital raises Rs 150 crore in funding

MUMBAI: Optimo Capital has raised Rs 150 crore ($17.5 million) in series A funding, led by founder Prashant Pitti along with existing investors Blume Ventures and Omnivore, the company said on Tuesday. Around 4.8 crore small-business owners (75% of total) don’t have credit-history, making it difficult for them to access large-ticket business loans from banks/NBFCs. Yet, most of them own a home or shop, their most valuable but under-used asset. Optimo allows these MSME entrepreneurs to use that property as collateral, and get higher loan-amount (at lower interest-rate compared to unsecured business or personal loans).Using 77 lac digital land records & AI-driven processes, Optimo does property-valuation and title-verification quickly and provides in-principle approvals within hours and loan disbursals in under a week, something that traditionally takes 4 to 6 weeks.In just 18 months, Optimo has built a Rs 350 crore loan book, and opened branches in 56 cities in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh with a team of 480. The company became profitable within three months of inception and has stayed profitable for over 15 months. “Optimo is unlocking India’s biggest asset (53% of nation’s wealth), its land & property, by allowing property-owners to quickly get secured-loans,” said Prashant Pitti, Founder & MD. “India’s Mortgage-to-GDP ratio is just 9% versus above 50% in developed economies, clearly we are not utilising our biggest wealth to grow our GDP faster,” he said. Additionally, Optimo has raised the debt of Rs 110 crore from IDFC & Axis Bank, while several PSU banks and large NBFCs are expected to be added as debtors or co-lending partners shortly. The company will use the new funds to expand its technology, AI infra, co-lending partnerships, and presence across tier-3 India, to bridge the $530 billion credit-gap that exists in the Indian ecosystem.