Fintech platform Findeed Raises Seed Round From Venture Highway And Anicut Angel Fund The company aims to improve financial inclusion by harnessing the power of community networks

Consumer-focused fintech company Findeed—which envisions making financial services accessible to the underserved Indians through efficient usage of data, tech, and community partnerships to help achieve their financial goals of easy and quick access to credit for a rainy day—on Thursday announced to have raised seed fund led by Venture Highway and Anicut Angel Fund with participation from First Cheque.

The seed investment will be used to hire fresh talent across profiles to build a strong team and to fuel business growth.

"The COVID-19 pandemic robbed people of their sense of financial security, and the common working class took the worst hit. We want to power their aspirations with financial access and help them in bringing their dreams to life. We take pride in our strong association and partnerships with anchors like our employer partners to reach our customers. We leverage the strong social cooperation in this network to bring them credit access. This has impacted the lives of our customers by enabling them to pay off debt or take care of their family needs like education or home renovation expenses with formal credit. Our partnership with their employer means they do not have to worry about paying their EMI on time and makes it hassle-free," said Srividhya Ramarathnam, Co-founder, Findeed.

Findeed was founded in July 2019 by Srividhya Ramarathnam and Sriram Shankar with the vision to make financial services accessible and affordable to middle-class Indians.

"Venture Highway is super excited to partner with Srividya and Sriram in their goal to build Findeed, new age and disruptive version of the traditional Microfinance model. Catering to the Bharat customers, Findeed's technology aims to leverage community & cohort dynamics to create a differentiated financial services platform. We believe, given the founders' backgrounds and experience, they are best suited to create their version of Microfinance 3.0 for India," stated Samir Sood, founder, and chief believer, Venture Highway.

The company partners with employers, NGOs, and financial institutions to offer simple and fair collateral-free loans to help underserved customers meet their rainy day needs. It helps bridge the gap for the financially underserved customers, by using data and technology to harness the power of social collaboration/cooperation and a strong sense of community bonding that exists in local communities.

"Findeed's vision to make financial service accessible offers people a chance to fuel their aspirations, a belief Anicut stands by. Our investment in the company springs from its unique approach of using tech and data in creating an ecosystem that enables, empowers, and equips the people of Bharat with instant credit. The exponential experience and dedication of the founders towards the customers is another reason we believe Findeed would make a great impact in the fintech industry. I wish them all the very best," mentioned Ashvin Chadha, co-founder, Anicut Angel Fund.

The company's goal is to empower the people, starting with credit through a fair and easy process that meets their rainy day needs. It aspires to achieve this by leveraging the power of data, technology and through strong partnerships with local communities.

"Along with our Venture Partner Pravin Jadhav (co-founder of PayTm Money), we are proud to back Srividhya and Sriram as they apply their deep domain expertise in Fin-Tech to democratize access to credit for millions of Indian households," added Kushal Bhagia, chief executive officer, FirstCheque.vc.