Ranganathan, who left Prosus-owned PayU earlier this 12 months, is at present on gardening go away. His new enterprise will possible be within the wealthtech house and can enable Indian mother and father to save lots of funds throughout varied monetary devices to assist with their kid’s tertiary schooling.
Founder of client lending enterprise PaySense, which was offered to PayU for $185 million in January 2020, Ranganathan has engaged with enterprise agency Nexus Venture Partners together with a few US and Singapore-based funds to spend money on the spherical, two folks stated requesting anonymity. Nexus was an investor in PaySense.
While the ultimate contours of the deal are but to be determined, the spherical is at present being mentioned at a valuation of just about $100 million, three folks stated.
The discussions are nonetheless at an early stage, the folks stated.
“Ranganathan has approached Nexus with the deck for his new startup. The venture is likely to be at the intersection of education and wealth, where it will assist parents to save systematically towards their child’s education abroad. The talks with investors are still at a very formative stage and things will be much clearer post October,” stated one of many folks.
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ET had first reported on August 25 that Ranganathan had stop PayU.Queries despatched to Nexus Venture Partners didn’t elicit a response till press time on Sunday. Ranganathan declined to remark.
PayU’s acquisition of PaySense was ranked amongst one of many massive home money exits for Nexus. The enterprise agency held roughly 23% stake in PaySense earlier than its acquisition by PayU.
If the deal goes by way of, it is going to be among the many largest early-stage funding rounds prior to now 12 months or so amid the present downturn.
Ranganathan is anticipated to formally transfer out from PayU in October and is prone to launch his second enterprise by February, subsequent 12 months.
“The startup may have a lending play at a later stage as it sets up the wealth management vertical, for which he (Ranganathan) may apply for a registered investment advisor licence,” stated one of many folks ET spoke with.
As part of his stint at PayU, Ranganthan was instrumental in scaling up the native credit score business, Lazypay, for the Amsterdam-based fintech main.
PayU India at present helps 2 million prospects and over 450,000 retailers in areas corresponding to lending and digital credit score merchandise. Prosus, whereas asserting its annual outcomes just lately, stated that PayU’s credit score business in India was shut to interrupt even.
In the previous, Indian startups corresponding to EduFund and Rupiyaa have been centered on serving to mother and father save devoted corpus in the direction of their baby’s schooling. In May this 12 months, EduFund raised $3.5 million as part of its pre-Series A spherical led by enterprise capital agency MassMutual Ventures.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com