According to reports, Digital lending fintech EarlySalary has raised $110 million that is about Rs. 878.8 crore from investors co-led by private equity majors TPG's Rise Fund and Norwest Venture Partners.

The Pune-based company said it plans to use the investment to accelerate its loan book, increase its presence to 150 cities, hire more for senior management functions, and grow the scope of its buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) business.

EarlySalary’s existing investor Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Ltd also participated in the round.

According to reports, EarlySalary was closing a $100-million fundraise from TPG and Norwest.

Akshay Mehrotra, cofounder and chief executive, EarlySalary says, “The idea was to take the minimum threshold of investment in this round, since we wanted dry powder to be available for the future. PEs understands the NBFC-led credit business better and we felt they were the right choice since they can drive efficiencies. We have continued to perform well in areas of customer repeats, stickiness and customer exclusivity (loyalty). Piramal couldn’t invest in our previous round, so we opened this round to them.”

As per reports, with the fund infusion, EarlySalary’s founders’ stake in the company will be 14-15 percent.

The funding comes close on the heels of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) new guidelines on digital lending, which put the focus back on regulated entities, giving fintechs with an active NBFC (non-banking financial company) licence an advantage. EarlySalary runs an NBFC through which it lends along with its other partners.

Niren Shah, managing director at Norwest Venture Partners says, “Digital lending is emerging as one of the fastest growing fintech segments in India and we believe that EarlySalary is well positioned to serve the credit needs of millions of under-served but aspirational Indians.”