Mumbai-based lender InCred has acquired personal loan marketplace Qbera amidst the economic crisis led by Coronavirus pandemic. According to various reports, the deal is supposedly materialized at $15 million with little or no upside for Qbera. Aditya Ghosh and Anuj Sachdev, founders of Qbera will be joining InCred team to head the platform business and advisory role respectively. The other employees will also be joining the InCred office.
“Qbera has been in stress for quite some time and was out in the market for acquisition since late last year. It was in talks with InCred from February. It’s unlikely that InCred is spending anything significant for acquiring Qbera. It’s also highly unlikely that InCred would absorb Qbera’s workforce completely in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic,” according to one of the sources aware of the development.
InCred is one of the top three lenders along with Lendingkart and Capital Float. The firm is a full-stack lender in personal, SMEs, education, and two-wheeler loans. On the other hand, Qbera serviced the business class and facilitated private loans for the sub-segment of the salaried class which is usually overlooked by other financial institutions. Qbera worked hand in hand with banks and NBFCs to provide personal loans to its target market.
Qbera was planning to raise $15 million but as it was unsuccessful, it looked at the option of acquisition. It was also facing liquidity crunch and according to sources, due to Covid-19, the company’s difficulties just increased and pushed it to take up the deal. Qbera has previously raised $4.5 million in total funding across two financing rounds. The last investment for the company came in September 2018 in which it had raised $3 million in an all-equity deal from Essel Group’s subsidiary.