Mumbai: Small business lender Kinara Capital on Thursday said it has raised ₹100 crore from private equity funds and impact investors, which will help it increase its investment in technology to improve customer experience and assess credit decisions at a faster rate.
The round was led by its existing investors — mid-market private equity firm Gaja Capital, Spanish investment firm GAWA Capital, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Patamar Capital, an impact investor headquartered in San Francisco.
Kinara last raised $5 million in debt from Swiss impact investor ResponsAbility Investments AG in July last year, prior to which it raised ₹96 crore led by Gaja Capital.
The lender claims to have disbursed ₹1,160 crore of loans so far, impacting over half a million people.
Hardika Shah, founder and CEO of Kinara Capital, said, “We are honoured with the vote of confidence from our investors as we aim to reach new milestones by investing in people and technology. Impact-focussed sustainable growth is at the heart of all that we do to create access to capital for small business entrepreneurs."
Kinara Capital provides loans between ₹2 and 25 lakh, without taking property collateral from small business entrepreneurs. Women were hired in 22% of the jobs created by small businesses funded by Kinara Capital, and about 28% of all jobs went to first-time earners, the company said in a statement.
Kinara Capital built a fully digital platform that eliminates paperwork and saves time for both customers and employees to fast track the credit decision process, and it claims that funds are disbursed within five to seven days of receiving the loan application. The company will now expand investment in services such as autopay and auto-disbursement. On the back-end, the company will further develop its proprietary machine-learning lending algorithms to fast track financial inclusion.
It also plans to add 20 branches in high-growth locations in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Kinara Capital currently has an employee base of 1,000 and plans to hire about 300 more this year.
