HomeCapital,
a Fintech company focussed on accelerating housing among millennials in India , has
raised a funding round led by Varanium NexGen Fund with participation from
Venture Catalysts, JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation, Singapore Angel
Network, Venture Gurukool, Shalin Shah among other marquee investors.
The
company’s prime mission is to enable aspiring time home buyers accelerate their
home ownership through its down payment assistance program. The program
provides down payment assistance to home buyers up to half of their initial
costs at zero interest cost. Home buyers pay back the zero-cost assistance over
a period up to 1-2 years and thus helping them to build equity in the homes.
Headquartered in Mumbai, the company supports home buyers in 8 cities including
Mumbai, Bangalore ,
Chennai, Pune Kolkata amongst others. The proceeds of this round will be used
to expand operations and scale technology infrastructure. Unitus Capital was
the financial advisor to the transaction.
Housing
Affordability and low savings for down payment are some of the biggest problems
for first time home buyers in India .
The problems have become more acute in large cities due to rapid urbanisation
and relatively young work force population (median age of 29) with no savings.
Down payment towards house has emerged as the biggest hurdle for young
first-time home buyers pushing the decision to buy their dream house into future.
The
company aims to help accelerate the $ 100 bn housing industry, poised to reach
approximately $ 500 Bn by 2025. HomeCapital program has
facilitated $125 Mn of housing sales till date through its flagship program.
The
company is also in pilot stages of HomeNxt- an industry wide home loan co-lending
platform. This platform will facilitate the flow of credit to affordable
housing and share lending infrastructure among the housing finance companies.
Down
payment assistance programs are available in countries like US, UK , Canada and approximately 15 other
countries and are administered by Federal and state governments to promote
housing. There are very few private companies globally addressing the challenge
of housing affordability. This sector has seen significant traction with most
notable transactions include a $ 30 mn fund raise by US based Divvy in a round
led by Andresson Horowitz, $ 40 mn Series B by Unison and Landed, a Y
combinator incubated company that completed a $ 7 mn round with participation
by Zuckerberg Foundation.
Mumbai, May 25, 2020