Kinara Capital, an Indian fintech platform, has secured $50 million in a Series E investment to provide finance to small business owners in the country.
Nuveen's Global Impact Fund led the round, with the ASN Microkredietfonds, a Dutch microfinance fund advised by Triple Jump, also participating.
Kinara will employ equity capital to expand its product and service offerings in order to address the credit needs of India's micro, small, and medium-sized companies (MSME).
By 2025, the fintech hopes to have grown by 500 percent and will have provided $1 billion in MSME business loans.
Rekha Unnithan, Nuveen managing director and co-head of private equity impact, and Stephen Lee, Nuveen director of private equity impact, will join Kinara's board of directors, according to the conditions of the agreement.
Unnithan said: “Kinara Capital and its leadership are par excellence in how they have disrupted small business lending in India. Taking a digital-first approach without compromising on human customer service, Kinara has outclassed others with its ability to address the pain points of MSMEs in India. With a decade worth of proprietary data, Kinara has perfected its qualification processes and turnaround time.”
Kinara provides credit in both online and offline formats. It has a network of more than 110 locations in more than 90 cities.
On its myKinara app, the fintech employs AI/ML to provide collateral-free company loans up to $30,000.
Asset acquisition loans, long-term working capital loans, and bill discounting loans are among the company's offerings.
Specifically, with Kinara's HerVikas initiative, all female entrepreneurs are automatically eligible for a discount.
“We at Kinara Capital are immensely thrilled with the dual investment from Nuveen and Triple Jump who are uniting to support small business entrepreneurs in India, the world’s fastest-growing major economy," stated Kinara Capital founder and CEO Hardika Shah.
"This new round of funding will energise us to scale quicker so that we can keep doing what we do best: bringing more small business owners into the fold of financial inclusion." Triple Jump equity manager Orsolya Farkas said: “Impact is core to Kinara’s business and the company has never wavered from its mission of financial inclusion.”
