Plans to utilize the capital to expand the range of investment products offered, launch new user features
Plans to strengthen its team as it targets to facilitate INR 1,000 Cr in investments by Sept’22.
Grip Invest, a digital platform for facilitating new-age asset-backed investments, has raised INR 21 Cr ($3 million) in its Series A round led by Venture Highway and Endiya Partners. The round also saw participation from AdvantEdge, existing investors Anicut Angel Fund and Gemba Capital, as well as ecosystem angels such as Satyen Kothari (Founder, Cube Wealth & Citrus Pay), Gaurav Gupta (CBO, Cube Wealth), Akash Sinha (Co-Founder, Cashfree), Reeju Datta (Co-Founder, Cashfree), Ankit Agarwal (CFO, Navi) and FMS Launchpad. This brings the total funding received by the company to INR 27 Cr ($ 3.6 million).
Grip aims to enable investors to create a more diversified portfolio by providing access and ease of transaction for multiple new age asset-backed investment options. The company currently allows retail investors to participate in lease and inventory financing transactions. Within 12 months of launch, Grip has become one of the fastest-growing investment platforms with:
- INR 75 Cr in investments facilitated
- 80,000+ retail investor community growing 30% month-on-month for the last 12 months
- 40% repeat investment rate for users
- Retail investor base from 42 countries and 322 cities globally
- Investments facilitated have enabled 30+ companies such as Udaan, Furlenco, Holisol, Everest Fleet, Loadshare, IPL Tech, ChargeZone, Zypp, Vogo, FleetX, FabAlley, BlueTokai to access a different channel of growth capital
On the fund raise, Nikhil Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Grip Invest, said, “While fintech has revolutionized how we think about payments, stock-investing, loyalty rewards and money transfers, 99% of retail investors are still left with just two investment options – fixed deposits and mutual funds. Grip’s mission is to change the way Indians think about investing and facilitate wealth creation opportunities with healthy diversified portfolios. At the same time, we want these investors to have direct access to finance growth and asset creation for the businesses of tomorrow. For example, 40% of investments via Grip have gone towards building a robust growth in the electric vehicles industry.”
“As a company that started in the middle of the 1st lockdown, we are learning to build a business in a totally new operating environment. Our team has met physically just once; our customers are present across the world and only interact with us digitally – we have to build new mechanisms for trust and transparency, both internally and externally”, said Nikhil Aggarwal.
Grip will utilize the capital to expand the range of investment products offered, launch new user features and strengthen its team as it targets to facilitate INR 1,000 Cr in investments by Sept’22.
Quote from Investors:
“VH is extremely excited to partner with the founders of Grip – they have a clear thesis, deep understanding of the customer segment, large FinTech market opportunity on both demand and supply, product-market fit and a very strong team. Mass-affluent retail investors in India are greatly underserved – other alternatives like P2P or revenue-based financing typically do not have the risk-adjusted returns that asset-backed products on Grip provide. There is a strong need for a platform like Grip, which is also reflected in the deep customer love with high repeats, high referrals and continually expanding portfolio size of early cohorts”, said Samir Sood, Founder, Venture Highway.
Sateesh Andra, MD of Endiya Partners, said, “Indian retail (HNI and Millennials) investors have been on the constant lookout for great investment options in the risk-reward spectrum beyond the options at the extreme ends – bank FDs / insurance policies or stock markets / mutual funds. Grip Invest offers them a great opportunity to get higher fixed income returns along with the backing of an asset (lower risk). The team lead by Nikhil has a thorough understanding of the market opportunity and how to go about building a large company. We are excited to be part of Grip’s Journey”.
Ashvin Chadha, Managing Partner, Anicut Capital, said, “There is about $5tn worth of wealth with 300mn Indians; based on global trends about 20% of the amount will be invested in alternate investments. Grip Invest has been able to tap into a relatively less risky asset class and opened the door for retail investors to invest in the best risk-adjusted yields available in the market. The company’s innovative approach, passion and its execution has been unparalleled. It’s heartening to see Grip Invest grow and we wish the team good luck for the future. We are big fans of Grip Invest!”
Kunal Khattar Managing Partner of AdvantEdge Founders Fund said, “This is the second time we are partnering with Nikhil. As a fund focusing on the rapid adoption of EV’s, we feel Grip has clear market leadership in creating India’s largest leasing platforms for B2B commercial use cases of EV’s and will accelerate the disintermediation of vehicle and battery ownership to make payback significantly superior to traditional ICE vehicles.”
