Rural Fintech Startup Navadhan Raises $1.5 Million Seed Funding The company plans to utilise the fund raised to expand and enhance its AceN Tech platform
By Teena Jose •
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Rural-fintech startup Navadhan has raised $1.5 million in Seed funding round led by Varanium NexGen, a fintech focussed fund. Existing investor Anicut Capital co-led the round and Gemba Capital also participated. Navadhan plans to utilise funds raised to expand and enhance its AceN Tech platform.
"We are a tech-led and revenue-first fintech. Our mission is to help create new-wealth for the rural small-entrepreneurs by solving their challenges. We are leveraging Tech using alternative-credit, predictive analytics backed by data sciences. With both Tech and People on-ground, we are making it work for the NBFCs and Banks to generate priority sector assets. The new fundraise will add tailwinds to our growth plans. As the Smart-phone and UPI penetration improves, we have an early mover advantage in the rural markets," said Nitin Agrawal, founder and CEO, Navadhan.
With the power of data science, Navadhan's proprietary alternative underwriting model assesses the digital footprint and cash flow surrogates. This solves the lack of income proofs and documents which has kept the banks away from such markets. According to the company, this innovative approach addresses the challenges of the predominantly cash-based economy and limited banking track record in rural markets.
"While most of the fintech space is focussed at tier-1,2,3, we saw Navadhan's focus on the informal market as a potential high-growth area. Navadhan's founders are seasoned professionals with credible experience in financial services. With the right TAM, Team, Tech, and Traction, they are building an early mover's advantage in rural-markets. Tech- led approach gives non-linear scalability to their model. We see Navadhan as a potential market leader in making," said Aparajit Bhandarkar, Varanium NexGen.
Navadhan was co-founded by Nitin Agrawal along with 3 teammates – Vijay Haswani, Anirudh Ramakuru and Amit Biswal. The company also stated that it plans to introduce new solutions and offerings which include credit limits and tech tools for digitising un-organized value chains.
