Startup Deep Dive : Propelld — lending to students with no collateral, under 1% bad loans

Propelld lends money to teenagers with no income, no credit history and no collateral to offer — and says fewer than 1% of those loans have gone bad. That is an unusual claim to stand behind in Indian education lending, a segment banks have avoided for decades precisely because of defaults.

The Bengaluru company, founded in 2017, has turned that contrarian bet into a licensed non-banking financial company (NBFC), a loan book of ₹1,500 crore, and backing from WestBridge Capital and Stellaris Venture Partners. It has also posted widening losses even as revenue grew, and its own numbers do not always agree across disclosures. This piece works through what is verifiable: the founding insight, the funding, the business model, and where the gaps in the public record are.

Quick facts

What they do

Propelld finances students who want to study or upskill but cannot get a loan from a bank. It underwrites against future earning potential and course-and-institute track record rather than parental income or a credit bureau score, and distributes almost entirely through the institutes themselves — coaching centres for engineering and medical entrance exams, colleges, and online skilling platforms such as those teaching in-demand professional courses — rather than marketing directly to individual borrowers. As of its most recent disclosed figures, the company has disbursed a cumulative ₹4,434 crore (~$462 million at $1 ≈ ₹96.0) to 401,095 students through partnerships with more than 3,000 educational institutions (Forbes India, October 2025).

The origin

The three co-founders — Victor Senapaty, Brijesh Samantaray and Bibhu Prasad Das — grew up together in Bhubaneswar before separate careers took them elsewhere, then reunited around a data point Senapaty kept returning to: education loans made up roughly 1% of State Bank of India’s loan book, even though a bank loan for a house or a car was easy to get and a loan for a degree was not (Forbes India, October 2025). The reason, he found, was economics rather than intent. A loan of ₹1-3 lakh to a student at an institute outside India’s top 50 costs almost as much to collect on as a much larger loan, so mainstream lenders simply avoided the segment. Overseas education loans, meanwhile, accounted for only about 5% of that overseas-study market in a country sending hundreds of thousands of students abroad each year, against the backdrop of some $2 trillion in outstanding US student debt as a reference point for how large education financing can become (Forbes India, October 2025). Samantaray has described the founding conviction plainly: nobody in India should be kept out of education for lack of money, and the company would try, “every day”, to make that true (WestBridge Capital portfolio page).

The struggle years

The idea was not an easy sell to the people who actually had to write the cheques: lenders. India’s institutional memory of education lending was bad. Banks had been burned by waves of engineering-college loans where a student borrowed ₹8-10 lakh and graduated into a job paying ₹15,000-20,000 a month, if a job came at all — a mismatch that made the entire category, in the words of one industry account, “untouchable” for lenders (Prodwrks interview with Victor Senapaty). Propelld’s answer was to not start where the risk was worst. In its early years it built its loan book around professional upskilling courses — borrowers who were already working adults with a salary and a repayment history — because that cohort repaid far more reliably than fresh graduates from unproven institutes, and reliable repayment was the only way to convince a bank or NBFC to fund the next loan (Prodwrks). That caution shows up in how slowly the company raised money at first: an undisclosed seed round in 2017, then a second seed round of just $250,000 in August 2018, and only in July 2019 — two years after incorporation — a Series A of $2.2 million (Inc42 funding tracker). Even after institutional capital arrived, the underlying business stayed fragile on paper: net losses widened by 61% to about ₹43 crore in FY24 (year to March 2024) from about ₹26.7 crore in FY23, even as the loan book kept growing (Entrackr, May 2025).

The turning point

The clearest inflection is regulatory. On 5 July 2023, the Reserve Bank of India granted an NBFC licence to Propelld’s subsidiary, Edgro, letting the company lend from its own balance sheet for the first time instead of only originating loans that partner banks and NBFCs carried on theirs. At the time of the licence, Propelld’s annualised disbursement run-rate stood at about ₹1,200 crore, with a target of ₹2,000 crore for FY24 (CXOToday, July 2023). What followed moved quickly: Edgro began operating that same month, and within six months — by May 2024 — it had raised more than $25 million in debt from nine lenders, including Credit Saison India, AU Small Finance Bank, InCred Financial Services and Northern Arc Capital (Financial IT, May 2024; corroborated by Entrackr’s 2024 report on the same raise). By the time of its most recent disclosures, the company’s assets under management had reached ₹1,500 crore, roughly two-thirds of it in skilling loans, and its partner-institute network had grown past 3,000 (Forbes India, October 2025). Going from an origination platform dependent entirely on other lenders’ risk appetite to a licensed lender that could raise its own debt is the event that let the rest of the business — the Series D, the AUM growth, the claimed profitability milestone — happen.

The money behind it

• 2017, seed (undisclosed amount): early backing including India Quotient, alongside other angel investors (Inc42 funding tracker).
• August 2018, seed extension, $250,000: led by Indian Angel Network and other individual investors (Inc42 funding tracker).
• July 2019, Series A, $2.2 million: India Quotient returned, among other participants (Inc42 funding tracker).
• February 2022, Series B, $35 million: led by WestBridge Capital (WestBridge Capital portfolio page; Inc42) — the first large institutional cheque, and the round that funded the shift from a lending marketplace toward owning more of the credit relationship.
• May 2024, debt financing, $25-plus million: raised by NBFC subsidiary Edgro from nine lenders — Credit Saison India, AU Small Finance Bank, InCred Financial Services, Northern Arc Capital and others — within six months of Edgro’s launch, to fund on-book lending in tier-2 and tier-3 cities (Financial IT, May 2024).
• May 2025, Series D, ₹260 crore (~$30.5 million): WestBridge Capital led with ₹240 crore (~$28 million), Stellaris Venture Partners added ₹20 crore, taking their post-round stakes to 46.9% and 15.69% respectively; post-money valuation reported at about ₹860 crore (~$101 million) (Entrackr, May 2025).

Total funding raised is itself a contested number: Tracxn puts it at $70.2 million across nine rounds from 59 investors, while CB Insights lists a lower $62.5 million. Both track the same company; neither publishes its full round-by-round reconciliation, so the range — roughly $62.5-70.2 million — is what the public record supports. WestBridge Capital stands out for backing Propelld twice, three years apart, first in the 2022 Series B and again leading the 2025 Series D — continuity that reads as conviction in the underwriting model surviving the jump from marketplace to licensed lender.

How it makes money

The business is a spread business, the same as any lender, but the spread sits in an unusual place. Propelld prices education loans at around 15% and skilling or upskilling loans at around 19%, against a blended cost of funds of about 12.5% — with fresh debt, such as the May 2024 raise, coming in cheaper at around 11% (Forbes India, October 2025). The margin between what it charges borrowers and what it pays lenders is the core of the model; the part outsiders tend to get wrong, per the company’s own account, is assuming the risk is in the borrower’s income today, when the underwriting is built around income after the course finishes.

• Lending rate: about 15% on education loans, about 19% on skilling/upskilling loans (Forbes India, October 2025).
• Cost of funds: roughly 12.5% blended; new debt priced near 11% as of 2025 (Forbes India, October 2025).
• Distribution: almost entirely B2B, through more than 3,000 partner institutes rather than direct-to-consumer marketing, which keeps loan proceeds tied to verified tuition or course fees and is the mechanism the company credits for containing defaults (Prodwrks; Forbes India).
• Credit performance: non-performing assets held below 1% as of the NBFC-licence announcement in July 2023 (CXOToday) and still described as industry-leading in the company’s most recent public comments (Forbes India, October 2025).
• Two lending rails: loans originated for partner banks/NBFCs (the original marketplace model) and loans funded on Edgro’s own book since July 2023 — the second growing faster since the licence.

The numbers

• FY23 loss: about ₹26.7 crore, as per regulatory filings analysed by Entrackr (May 2025).
• FY24 loss: about ₹43.1 crore, up 61% year-on-year, corroborated across Entrackr’s reporting (May 2025).
• Revenue for FY24 is genuinely contested between two sources: ₹82 crore flat year-on-year per RoC-filing-based reporting (Entrackr) versus ₹55 crore per the company’s own figures given to Forbes India — this piece flags rather than resolves that gap, since neither source is a primary audited filing this piece could open directly.
• FY25 revenue of ₹76.9 crore and the “cash-profitable” claim are both company-stated (Forbes India, October 2025) and have no independent regulatory-filing corroboration available yet, since FY25 filings were not located in this research.

Where the money comes from

• Assets under management: ₹1,500 crore, of which roughly two-thirds sits in skilling and upskilling loans and about one-third in traditional education loans (Forbes India, October 2025) — the surprise being that a company positioned around “education loans” now carries more of its book in shorter, career-upskilling credit than in degree financing.
• Institute network: grew from 2,000-plus partner institutes at the time of the July 2023 NBFC licence (CXOToday) to more than 3,000 by late 2025 (Forbes India, October 2025).
• Reach to date: ₹4,434 crore (~$462 million at $1 ≈ ₹96.0) disbursed cumulatively to 401,095 students (Forbes India, October 2025).
• Loan-pricing split: education loans at about 15%, skilling loans at the higher 19%, reflecting shorter tenures and different risk-return profiles across the two segments (Forbes India, October 2025).
• Geography emphasis: the 2024 debt raise was explicitly earmarked for expanding access in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, where formal credit for education is scarcest (Financial IT, May 2024).

The risks

• Wholesale funding dependence: Edgro’s on-book lending runs on borrowed money from nine institutional lenders — Credit Saison India, AU Small Finance Bank, InCred Financial Services and Northern Arc Capital among them — at a blended cost of about 12.5%, with new debt near 11% (Forbes India, October 2025). A tightening in wholesale credit availability or pricing would squeeze the spread against its 15-19% lending rates directly.
• Concentration in future-income underwriting: about two-thirds of the ₹1,500 crore book is skilling and upskilling credit underwritten against a borrower’s expected post-course earnings rather than collateral or current income (Forbes India, October 2025). The below-1% NPA rate the company reports (CXOToday, July 2023) has held through good hiring years for the courses it finances; it has not been tested through a broad slowdown in placements for those courses.
• Profitability is still unproven on a statutory basis: net losses widened 61% to about ₹43 crore in FY24 even as the loan book grew (Entrackr, May 2025), and the company’s claim of turning “cash-profitable” from May 2025 (Forbes India, October 2025) is a narrower, self-reported measure than an audited net profit figure, which is not yet public for FY25.

The takeaway

Propelld’s sequencing is the transferable idea here, more than any single number. It did not try to convince lenders to trust the riskiest part of a mistrusted market first. It started with working professionals taking upskilling courses — a segment that looked almost boring next to full-time engineering or medical-entrance financing — built a repayment record there, and only then used that credibility, plus a banking licence, to expand into the harder, higher-stakes end of education lending. Trust with capital providers, in a business that is entirely capital providers, had to be earned in the safest room in the house before it could be spent in the riskiest one.

Frequently asked questions

What does Propelld do?

Propelld is a Bengaluru-based fintech that finances education and skilling courses for students and working professionals, underwriting loans against expected future earnings and distributing them through partnerships with more than 3,000 institutes rather than direct-to-consumer marketing (Forbes India, October 2025).

Who founded Propelld and when?

Propelld was founded in 2017 in Bengaluru by Victor Senapaty, Brijesh Samantaray and Bibhu Prasad Das, three friends from Bhubaneswar who built the company around the observation that education loans made up only about 1% of State Bank of India’s loan book (Forbes India, October 2025).

How much funding has Propelld raised, and who backs it?

Public trackers put total funding at roughly $62.5-70.2 million across nine rounds since 2017 (Tracxn; CB Insights). Its largest backers are WestBridge Capital, which led both the 2022 Series B and the 2025 Series D and holds a 46.9% stake, and Stellaris Venture Partners, which holds 15.69% (Entrackr, May 2025).

Is Propelld profitable?

Not on a statutory basis as of the last publicly disclosed fiscal year: net losses widened 61% to about ₹43 crore in FY24 from about ₹26.7 crore in FY23 (Entrackr, May 2025). The company told Forbes India in October 2025 that it turned cash-profitable from May 2025, but an audited FY25 net profit or loss figure was not available in this research.

What is Edgro, and how is it different from Propelld?

Edgro is Propelld’s wholly owned NBFC subsidiary, licensed by the Reserve Bank of India on 5 July 2023. It lets the group lend directly from its own balance sheet — reaching ₹1,500 crore in assets under management — rather than relying solely on originating loans for partner banks and NBFCs, which was the original model (CXOToday, July 2023; Forbes India, October 2025).

Sources

Figures are as of September 2026. Currency converted at $1 ≈ ₹96.0 as of 18 September 2026 (Trading Economics).

• Forbes India, “How Propelld is trying to solve the specialised education financing problem”, October 2025.
• Entrackr, “Exclusive: Propelld to raise $30 Mn from WestBridge and Stellaris”, May 2025.
• Entrackr / TheKredible, reporting on Propelld’s FY23-FY24 revenue and loss figures from regulatory filings, 2025.
• Inc42, Propelld funding tracker (round dates, amounts and investors), accessed September 2026.
• WestBridge Capital, Propelld portfolio page, accessed September 2026.
• CXOToday, “Education financing startup Propelld gets NBFC licence; to raise its loan book 2x”, July 2023.
• Financial IT, “NBFC-backed Digital Lending Platform Propelld Secures Over $25 Million Through Debt Raising”, May 2024.
• Prodwrks, “Propelld Shows the Way for Fintechs to Tackle NPAs in Education Loans”, interview with Victor Senapaty, accessed September 2026.
• CB Insights, Propelld company profile (total funding, employee count), accessed September 2026.
• Tracxn, Propelld company profile (founding details, total funding, employee count), accessed September 2026.

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