Sistema Asia Capital, one of the corporate venturing vehicles of the Russian conglomerate AFK Sistema, is one of the main investors in a $30 million funding round for Indian e-credit startup Kissht. Singapore’s Vertex Ventures SEA (Temasek Holdings) has co-led the round, which also involved existing investors, Indian funds VenturEast and Endiya Partners, and China’s Fosun RZ Capital.
Founded in 2015, Kissht provides collateral-free loans for products such as electronic appliances, jewellery, cars or furniture. This service is available at over 50 online merchants, including Flipkart and Amazon, and more than 3,000 offline points of sale, claims the startup.
Clients repay through equated monthly instalments (EMI) using the Kissht EMI card.
Sistema Asia Capital (initially known as Sistema Asia Fund) targets essentially startups operating in the technology and niche consumer retail segments in India and Southeast Asia. The fund has established its headquarters in Singapore and an office in India.
Since its inception in early 2016, Sistema Asia Capital has invested in a variety of Indian startups, including (non exhaustively):
- EDRM solution provider Seclore (participation in a $12 million funding round in 2016);
- Gifting card startup QwikCilver (participation in a $10 million round in 2016);
- Fashion discovery app Woolpr (participation in a $3 million round in 2017);
- Online financing company Lendingkart (participation in a $10.7 million round in Sept.2017);
- E-health and fitness platform HealthifyMe (participation in a $12 million round in early 2018);
- Food delivery startup Faaso (participation in a $15 million round in July 2018);
- Healthcare product marketplace Netmeds (participation in a $30 million round in September 2018).
