Drip Capital raises $25 million private equity, venture capital fund to accelerate global trade

In a bid to raise Series B funding through private equity and venture capital investment agencies, Palo Alto and Drip Capital have raised $25 million funding led by Accel with participation from existing investors Sequoia India, Wing VC, and Y Combinator. New investors in this round include GC1 Ventures and institutional investor platform Trusted Insight. The company has raised over $45 million of equity to date and $55 million of debt, taking the total funding to $100 million. 

Drip Capital uses technology to accelerate global trade and empower small companies and entrepreneurs in emerging markets. At the click of a button, Drip’s solution provides small business exporters with the working capital they need to grow their business. The trade finance gap currently stands at $1.5 trillion globally - the majority of which is amongst small business exporters in emerging markets. In other words, that is, $1.5 trillion of trade that does not happen due to a lack of access to working capital. This is the problem Drip set out to solve, financing its first invoice in India in 2016. 

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Speaking on the development Pushkar Mukewar, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Drip Capital said, “Trade finance is an age-old paper-based industry dominated by banks that primarily focus on large, established corporate customers. Hence, small businesses, despite accounting for 50% of merchandise exports from India, remain largely neglected. Our mission is to level the playing field for these small business exporters, not just in India but across emerging markets around the world.” 

Since its launch in India, Drip’s business model has showcased tremendous potential with a 10x growth rate in the last two years. The company has already funded more than $500 million of trade across 400+ exporters. “By FY 2020, Drip aims to fund $1 billion of trade originating from India. With the new round of funding and a proven model, the company is planning to expand its global footprint, launching in the United Arab Emirates and Mexico in 2019,” Mukewar added.

Neil Kothari, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Drip Capital said, “With an automated system, Drip provides seamless customer experience and can finance a shipment with the click of a button. On the backend, Drip integrates with multiple electronic data sources and has built proprietary algorithms to underwrite the risk of every shipment.” 

Elaborating on the fundraise Abhinav Chaturvedi from Accel said, “We have been associated with Drip since its inception and have participated in all their funding rounds till date. It has been inspiring to see the company’s progress in the last two years. We are excited to support them in their next phase of growth as they take their business model global.” 

Drip is rebuilding the core parts of international trade finance infrastructure from the ground up. The company uses electronic data and technology to rapidly underwrite and finance cross-border B2B transactions.