SmartCoin secures debt funding to bring fin services to small entrepreneurs

The company has seen strong demand for micro-credit from tier-2 and 3 cities through the second wave as people grappled with a lack of capital for medical situations and businesses

SmartCoin Financials, a fintech platform for Bharat, said it has secured debt funding from multiple financial institutions including Northern Arc, Vivriti Capital, MAS, India SME and others.

SmartCoin said it 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-coloured workforce. Smartcoin has raised a debt funding amount of Rs 80 crore to further its portfolio 10x with expansion in customized products and services.

“The last year has proved to be a litmus test for the relatively young fintech industry,” said Rohit Garg, co-founder and CEO, Smartcoin Financials. “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.”

The company has seen strong demand for micro-credit from tier-2 and tier-3 cities across the country through the second wave as people grappled with a lack of capital for medical situations and businesses.  As our economy recovers, the company aims to boost the small businesses, and growing middle and lower-income users with expanded credit products via their mobile app. SmartCoin has already served over six million users across 18000 pin codes across the country in a 100 per cent digital and automated manner.

“The pandemic has led to strong digital adoption in the middle and lower-income segments across Tier 2 geographies,” said Garg. “With our unique insights and understanding of the financial and behavioural data for this segment, we are expanding into new products for empowering our customers with better control of their financial lives.”

In the next few years, SmartCoin Financials said it will prepare itself to achieve the next phase of targeted exponential growth and envision reaching more than 50X-60X of its present performance levels.

Bama Balakrishnan, COO of Northern Arc, said 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,” said Balakrishnan.

Gautam Jain, business head, Vivriti Capital said 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.