Instamojo Opens Credit Book As Digital Ledger For SMBs

Small business (SMB) tech startup Instamojo announced the launch of its Instamojo Credit Book, which aims to get rid of manual ledgers by digitizing records. Available through the company’s Android app, the ledger allows businesses to keep track of credit given to vendors, suppliers and customers; monitor cash receivables from customers, vendors and suppliers; send due payment reminders; and maintain a centralized record of cash flow.

The Credit Book app and its features are free, with the company only charging for successful payments made to the user via Instamojo.

Its offering is similar to Khatabook, a mobile app that enables SMBs to record and track business transactions. More than 5 million merchants from over 3,000 cities have signed on, according to Khatabook Co-founder and CEO Ravish Naresh. He added that it has grown 20 percent weekly, and businesses recovered $5 billion in previously unpaid credits in six months.

Last month, the Bengaluru-based startup announced that it raised $25 million in Series A funding from GGV Capital, partners of DST Global, RTP Ventures, Sequoia India, Tencent, Y Combinator and others, along with more than 20 angel investors.

“As soon as we launched the app, we instantly started to go viral,” Naresh said. “These shopkeepers and roadside vendors have an internet-enabled smartphone. They are just not using it in their businesses. All they needed was a simple-to-use app.”

Another Bengaluru-based startup, OkCredit, which offers a mobile app so merchants can track their day-to-day purchases and sales, revealed in September that it raised $67 million in a Series B funding round. So far, two-year-old OkCredit has raised a total of $83 million. Amy Wu, a partner at Lightspeed U.S., said OkCredit’s active users have grown 76 times since the beginning of the year.

“It’s one of the fastest-growing companies we’ve seen, and reflects the incredible virality and network effects of the business,” she said.