A digital lending startup, co-founded by Ruchi Kalra, is the new Indian unicorn. Oxyzo Financial Services hit the milestone with its maiden fundraising round of $200 million.
An Indian pair became the country’s first husband and woman to turn their individual firms into enterprises worth at least $1 billion, dubbed unicorns.
Oxyzo Financial Services, a digital lending business co-founded by Ruchi Kalra, , 38, announced Wednesday that it has raised $200 million in its first round of funding, backed by Alpha Wave Global, Tiger Global Management, Norwest Venture Partners, and others. Her 41-year-old husband Asish Mohapatra’s OfBusiness had reached the same valuation less than a year ago, thanks to funding from SoftBank Group Corp. and others.
Kalra and Mohapatra are both Indian Institute of Technology graduates. Mohapatra is the CEO of OfBusiness, whereas Kalra is the CEO of Oxyzo. The couple met while working at McKinsey & Co.
Oxyzo was also funded by Matrix Partners and Creation Investments in one of the largest Series A deals in India’s startup industry.
Oxyzo, a combination of the words oxygen and ozone, was launched in 2017 by Kalra, Mohapatra, and three others as an extension of the couple’s initial venture, OfBusiness, which they co-founded in early 2016.
Oxyzo employs technology to crunch data and give buy finance to businesses, granting cash-flow loans in a credit-starved economy where small and medium-sized firms struggle to obtain working capital.
OfBusiness, formerly known as OFB Tech Pvt., provides small and medium-sized businesses with bulk raw materials such as steel, diesel, food grains, and industrial chemicals.
According to Mohapatra, the valuation of OfBusiness,topped $1 billion when SoftBank and others invested in it last April. According to him, the startup’s valuation hit around $5 billion in December when SoftBank and others put more money into it.
Kalra, a partner at McKinsey, left the firm to join forces with her husband, who exited venture capital firm Matrix.
Kalra says they both wanted to achieve something.
