[Funding alert] Fintech app True Balance raises $10M in debt funding led by Northern Arc

True Balance — an RBI authorised fintech app — on Monday said it raised $10 million in debt funding from a group of investors. Headquartered in Seoul and Gurugram, True Balance is operated by Balancehero India — the wholly-owned subsidiary of Balancehero Korea.

Northern Arc Investment, along with investors from India and Korea, have invested in the fintech startup's lending arm — True Credits — to support the NBFC's growth in India, and the launch of newer loan products.

According to a statement, True Balance has disbursed loans of over $30 million this financial year alone to India’s underbanked, uncredited, un-accessed, and financially excluded, through its licensed NBFC subsidiary, True Credits Pvt Ltd.

Speaking on the investment, Victor Choi, CEO, True Balance, said, 

“Since we launched in India, the focus was on catering to the need of the next billion Indian users. This audience will continue to be an integral part of every decision-making process, and the product line that we introduce in India."

"Our focus is to be a company that enables ‘finance for all,’ especially those uncredited users on our platform, based on our internal alternative credit scoring system,” he added.

True Balance has expanded its portfolio to bring full-stack financial services to the low-income citizenry by ‘making finance available for all.’

The fintech startup had previously raised a Series D funding of $28 million from SoftBank Ventures Asia, Line Ventures Corporation, D3 Jubilee Partners, and a host of other global investors towards the end of 2020.

Speaking about the new development, Vishal Bhatia, CFO, True Balance, said,

“As we raise funds, our efforts in stepping closer towards meeting the goal of being a successfully organised lender gets real.” 

He added, “This round of funding will be fortifying the collective effort by startups such as us, and the government to make India a stronger economy as we move forward towards growth. We are also expecting additional funding of $40 million this financial year.”  

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True Balance's loan book claims to have grown over manifolds since April 2020, especially across two key products — cash loans and level-up loans. 

With these key products, the startup will be catering to customers within the income bracket of Rs 10,000-45,000. These customers can avail loans from Rs 5,000 to 50,000 from the app, it stated.

It uses its internal alternative credit scoring system (ACS) and machine learning-based underwriting models to support and fund new-to-credit (NTC) and low-credit users.

Commenting on the investment, BamaBalakrishnan, Chief Operating Officer, Northern Arc, said,

“True Balance’s unique target segment — which is traditionally underbanked — will be well-served through its technology-based delivery channels. Northern Arc is delighted to be an early debt financier for the company, which fits well with its philosophy of identifying high-quality partners when they are nascent and supporting them through funding, relationships, products, and innovation.”