Indifi has also secured Rs 165 core in debt financing from Vivriti, Northern Arc, SIDBI, along with other lenders. Additionally, U.S. DFC (United States International Development Finance Corporation) has guaranteed Rs 35 crore of funding to Indifi.
“Although India is home to numerous MSMEs, most of them lack access to funding. At Indifi, we address this problem by working closely with more than 100 data partners and a few top financial institutions, providing easily accessible loans digitally, and helping businesses grow in their journey,” said Alok Mittal, CEO and co-founder, Indifi. “For example, our recent collaboration with Facebook digitally enables MSME players to avail small ticket sized loans to grow their businesses.”
Indifi operates an online lending platform that offers business loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that have limited access to credit from financial institutions. Indifi offers tailored loans for travel, hotel, e-commerce, restaurant, trading, and retail businesses. The funds raised will be used for serving more customers, identifying additional segments of MSMEs, and towards technology and product development.
“Indifi is filling a critical gap in the Indian lending landscape – to provide loans to small merchants and businesses using technology to bypass constraints of traditional MSME lending by relying on data and integrating with anchor digital ecosystems and financial institutions,” said Manu Sahni, Managing Director, CX Partners.
Tuomas Virtala, Head of Asset Management at OP Corporate Bank, said this investment allows Indifi to expand its services more broadly to the Indian MSME sector that is critical for economic development and employment.
India is home to around 63 million MSMEs, and a majority of them face microcredit challenges, making it difficult for them to efficiently manage and meet working capital needs. Indifi is addressing this problem by constantly innovating and offering new products within the existing industries or entering new industries with core offering.
“The platform brings together partners and lenders to help previously underserved small businesses access unsecured business loans,” said Kuutti Kilpeläinen, Investment Manager, Finnfund.