Seoul-based financial technology startup Balancehero has fetched a combined 26 billion won ($22 million) from multiple South Korean investors in a series C funding round to turn its flagship prepaid mobile balance tracker app True Balance into one focusing on a financial marketplace platform in India, the startup said Oct. 14.

Joining the latest round are new investors NH Investment & Securities, IBK Capital, D3 Jubilee Partners, SB Partners and Shinhan Capital, as well as existing investors IMM Investment and HB Investment.

The news came eight months after the Korean-Indian startup raised an undisclosed amount of funding from India’s private banking institution in February in Series B2 round. 

Representatives of IMM Investment and NH Investment & Securities attend a presentation before a poster promoting consumer loan products sold on True Balance app during a recent trip to India.
Balancehero

The transformation will allow True Balance to become a “reseller app” for consumer digital lending in India, which would become full-fledged if coupled with its own alternative credit scoring system, the company said.

Under the current system, some 900,000 loan sellers on the True Balance app are given the authority to assess the credit scores of those whose scores are not available under the nation’s popular credit scoring systems that are eligible to only a speck of some 1.3 billion Indians.

“Those borrowing consumer loans on True Balance marketplace are not required to have credit scores from systems like Cibil,” a Balancehero spokesperson told The Investor. “Instead, loan sellers on True Balance will be able to assess credit scores of the borrowers, using our alternative scoring system.”

The spokesperson added Balancehero is partnering with a company holding a nonbanking financial company license in India, while its subsidiary is seeking to acquire the license on its own.

This comes in line with the mobile app’s move to offer Indian users various functions such as sales of installment loans and insurance and payment of utility bills, as well as e-commerce and e-payment.

“Based on the data we accumulated through earlier sales of loans, we will put our efforts to make our alternative credit scoring system more sophisticated and advance our platform so that loan resellers would be able to focus more on the activity of sales,” Balancehero CEO Lee Cheol-won said in a statement.

Founded in 2014, True Balance has targeted Indian consumer market, with offices in Seoul and outside New Delhi.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)