The board of Refyne has passed a resolution to allot 3,500 Series A debentures at an issue price of INR 1 Lakh each to raise the sum

Founded in 2020, Refyne is an earned wage access (EWA) platform, which enables employees to access their earned salaries on-demand

The Tiger Global-backed startup reported a standalone net loss of INR 33.9 Cr on an operating revenue of INR 49 Cr in FY24

Fintech soonicorn Refinea platform which helps employees draw their salaries on demand, has secured INR 35 Cr (around $4 Mn) debt from Stride Ventures.

The board of Refyne passed a resolution on May 15 to allot 3,500 Series A debentures at an issue price of INR 1 Lakh each to raise the aforesaid amount, as per the startup’s MCA filing accessed by Inc42.

In the filing, the Bengaluru-based startup said it will use the fresh capital to meet its working capital requirements and general corporate purposes.

Inc42’s queries sent to Refyne did not elicit any response till the time of publishing the story.

Refyne’s Salary On-Demand Offering

Founded in 2020 by Chitresh Sharma and Apoorv Kumar, Refyne is an earned wage access (EWA) platform, which enables employees to access their earned salaries on-demand.

For instance, an employee at a partnered firm can log into the Refyne app and see how much wage they have accumulated in a week and withdraw a fraction of it before payday.

It claims to have catered to over 1 Cr employees of over 500 companies in India to date. Its clientele includes Cars24, Rebel Foods, TeamLease and Practo, among others.

The startup owns an NBFC licence and has also tied with other NBFCs such as Junoon Capital, Sunita Finlease, Olety Finance for the capital.

It currently has two revenue streams. Every time an employee draws their salary through Refyne, it charges a slab-based convenience fee based on the transaction amount.

It also offers personal or payday loans and levies an interest on employees on the overall credit utilised, in addition to handling charges, documentation charges, and more.

Refine last raised $82 Mn in its Series B funding round led by Tiger Global. In all, it has pocketed over $100 Mn in funding to date and also counts QED Investors, RTP Global, Jigsaw VC and XYZ Capital among its backers.

Refyne competes with the likes of Argyle and Jiffy in the EWA space, while it locks horns with Fibe, Perfios, PayU and KreditBee, among others, in the broader lending tech space.

On the financial front, the Tiger Global-backed startup reported a standalone net loss of INR 33.9 Cr in FY24, down almost 27% from INR 46.2 Cr loss it reported in the previous year, as per its filings sourced from Tofler.

Operating revenue surged nearly 59% to INR 49 Cr during the year under review from INR 30.9 Cr in FY23.

India’s Lending Tech Boom

The fresh funding for Refyne comes at a time when online lending is skyrocketing in India and business models such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) are red-hot. New-age fintech startups such as Razorpay, Moneyview, PhonePe, Simpl and LazyPay provide credit to users at select merchants with whom these companies have partnerships.

The fintech market opportunity is estimated to reach more than $2.1 Tn by 2030, with digital lending projected to account for 60% of that market, surpassing $1.3 Tn.

Amid growing demand, startups with a bouquet of lending offerings are also drawing steady venture capital funding. For instance, Bengaluru-headquartered CRED, which forayed into BNPL in 2023, raised INR 617 Cr in a funding round led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC’s Lathe Investment earlier this week.

Prior to that, Fibe bagged $90 Mn (about INR 750 Cr) in its Series E funding round led by TR Capital, Trifecta Capital and Amara Partner.