SmartCoin Secures INR 80 Cr Debt Funding From Northern Arc, Vivriti Capital, MAS And Others The funding is slated to fuel the credit strength of the fintech enterprise and accelerate its mission to enable financial products for the next billion users
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Automated ML-powered fintech platform for Bharat, SmartCoin Financials, on Wednesday, announced that it has secured debt funding from multiple financial institutions including Northern Arc, Vivriti Capital, MAS, India SME, and others.
SmartCoin is on a mission to enable digital financial services to a vastly underserved middle and lower-income segment that consists of over 300 million micro-entrepreneurs, micro-merchants, and gig and blue-colored workforce. Smartcoin has raised a debt funding amount of INR 80 crore to further its portfolio tenfold with expansion in customized products and services.
"We are more than pleased to have secured substantial funding from marquee investors like Northern Arc and Vivriti Capital. The last year has proved to be a litmus test for the relatively young fintech industry. For us, our focus on vast untapped Bharat opportunity, strong performance through the pandemic and managing among the lowest NPAs has led to a strong vote of confidence from the investor community. This timely injection of funds shall be leveraged to advance our vision of empowering financial inclusion and develop India into a financial superpower. The pandemic has led to strong digital adoption in the middle/lower-income segments across tier-II geographies, and with our unique insights and understanding of the financial and behavioral data for this segment, we are expanding into new products for empowering our customers with better control of their financial lives," said Rohit Garg, co-founder and chief executive officer, Smartcoin Financials.
The company has seen a strong demand for micro-credit from tier-II and tier-III cities across the country through the second wave as people grappled with lack of capital for medical situations and businesses. As our economy recovers, the company aims to boost the small businesses, and growing middle & lower income users with expanded credit products via their mobile app. SmartCoin has already served over 6 million users across 18000 pin codes across the country in a 100 per cent digital and automated manner.
"We are excited to partner with SmartCoin for enabling credit opportunities to the vast underserved middle and lower-income segments of the country. We believe that utilizing the digital infrastructure through innovative solutions is the key to empower millions of small businesses, merchants, and professionals. The relationship between Northern Arc and SmartCoin is at multiple levels – We have funded them through our Balance Sheet, raised capital from other investors through syndication and guarantee products and have a retail lending partnership with them. We hope to deepen and expand these partnerships going forward," shared Bama Balakrishnan, chief operating officer, Northern Arc.
"Excited to be part of SmartCoin's growth journey and helping them propel towards becoming a fully digital lender for Emerging India. Excellent pedigree of the founding team along with backing of marquee investors makes SmartCoin stand apart. SmartCoin's expertise in consumer lending via innovative products coupled with its tech capability makes it a perfect partner for capturing the missing middle in the growing Emerging Indian base," added Gautam Jain, business head, Vivriti Capital.
By underlining the need to provide instant affordable credit access to the hugely underserved middle-income and lower-income groups and raising consumer awareness, SmartCoin endeavors to ride the next wave of Indian growth. Its unique data-driven approach towards ushering financial inclusion for the neglected segments of the Indian population has been highly scalable and efficient as the company has managed to register an over 20 per cent month-on-month growth. In the next few years, SmartCoin Financials will prepare itself to achieve the next phase of targeted exponential growth and envision reaching more than fifty to sixty-time of its present performance levels.
