The new startup of BharatPe has expanded its footprint to 100 cities across India, including tier 2 and 3 cities, with an aim to cover 300 towns by 2023. The growth comes on the back of the $108 million Series D funding round BharatPe recently closed, led by New York-headquartered hedge fund Coatue Management. New additions include Guwahati, Vellore, Hosur, Nagpur, Raipur, Bilaspur, Bhubaneswar, tourist hubs like Pondicherry, Amritsar, Varanasi, and Agra. The company has rolled out its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payment acceptance service through quick response (QR) codes and loans to merchant partners in the new cities in the first phase. It will top this up with other fintech products in the second phase over the coming months.

“The expansion is in line with the exponential growth that the company has experienced in tier-2 and beyond markets over the last one year. BharatPe has witnessed a notable spike in digital transactions beyond its top 30 cities over the last one year, with an increase of 70% in number of transactions and 120% in value of transactions (TPV). We are focussed on creating awareness about digital payments and bringing the new age fintech services to the last mile in India.” said Suhail Sameer, group president, BharatPe.
BharatPe plans to add 4 million merchants to its existing list of over 6 million merchants by the end of 2021, Sameer added.

In an earlier interaction with Mint, BharatPe co-founder and chief executive Ashneer Grover had said the company plans to raise close to $500 million in debt by FY23, having recently raised $35 million from venture debt providers Alteria Capital, Trifecta Capital, and InnoVen. It now aims to raise $200 million debt from banks and other institutions this year, Grover had said.