Fintech startup DPDzero raises $7 million in funding round led by GMO Venture Partners

DPDzero, a Bengaluru-based fintech startup specializing in AI-driven debt collection, has secured $7 million in funding led by GMO Venture Partners. The company intends to utilise the capital to expand its operations by hiring field collection agents, starting in Bengaluru, to ensure ethical collection practices.

Fintech startupDPDzero has raised $7 million in a funding round led by GMO Venture Partners, a Japan-based, fintech-focused venture capital firm. The round also saw participation from SMBC Asia, and Blume Ventures, which doubled down on their investments from the previous round, along with others.

The company plans to use the fresh funds to hire its own field collection agents.

Bengaluru-based DPDzero helps fintechs, banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and micro-finance institutions (MFIs) in debt collection through artificial intelligence (AI) and human agents. The debt collection company currently partners with various banks and NBFCs, including RBL Bank, IndusInd Bank, L&T Finance and Manappuram Finance.

“What we are also going to do with our new capital-raise, is to build our own field agent network, so that we can bring in the missing ethical collection practice. We want to take care of end-to-end collections for all banks and all NBFCs in the country,” founder Ananth Shroff told ET. DPDzero was set up by Shroff and Ranjith Ramchandra in 2022.

The fintech company plans to start with field collection agents in Bengaluru. In the coming years, DPDzero said it would also use field agents in states such as Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, as they top the lending charts.

The company has so far raised $4.7 million from investors such as Better Capital, Anmol Maini Ventures, India Quotient, and so on, according to Tracxn.

DPDzero, which currently processes collections of unsecured borrowings and personal loans, said it plans to also try collections against credit card lending. It has handled collections from 1 crore borrowers so far and is currently doing the same with 18 lakh borrowers, on a monthly basis.

“Over the past decade, we have been deeply committed to India’s fintech ecosystem. As the credit landscape matures, collections remain its most under-served frontier… We are proud to back the founders as they reimagine collections for India,” said Ryu Muramatsu, a founding partner of GMO Ventures Partners.