Optimo Capital Raises ₹150 Crore ($17.5 M) Series-A To Redefine Property-Backed Lending in India
Bengaluru : Optimo Capital, India’s only digital Loan Against Property (LAP) fintech-NBFC, has raised ₹150 crore ($17.5 million) in its Series-A round, led by founder Prashant Pitti along with existing investors Blume Ventures and Omnivore.
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 & title-verification quickly and provides in-principle approvals within hours & loan disbursals in under a week, something that traditionally takes 4 to 6 weeks.
In just 18 months, Optimo has built a ₹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. Remarkably, the company became profitable within three months of inception and has stayed profitable for over 15 months, a rare milestone in the fintech lending space.
“Optimo is unlocking India’s biggest asset (53% of nation’s wealth), its land & property, by allowing property-owners to quickly get secured-loans by WhatsApping at 7996.796.796”, 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.”
Ashish Fafadia, Partner at Blume Ventures, said: “Prashant’s leadership and disciplined execution are rare in financial services. Optimo is building the blueprint for higher-amount & affordable loans backed by property, the future of secured lending in India.”
Reihem Roy, Partner at Omnivore, added: “The mid-ticket LAP market is a ₹22 lakh crore opportunity, and only 28% is being met today. Optimo’s tech-first model is perfectly timed to fill that gap.”
Additionally, Optimo has raised the debt of INR 110 Crs 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 USD 530 billion credit-gap that exists in the Indian ecosystem.