udaanCapital ties up with Northern Arc Capital for financing 50,000 kiranas

udaanCapital currently helps disburse over Rs 8,000 crore credit a year to 150,000 kiranas and small businesses. The credit is short-term and ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25 lakh

udaanCapital, one of India’s leading fintech players, said that it has partnered with Northern Arc Capital Limited and facilitated disbursal of credit to over 50,000 kiranas and small retailers. udaanCapital, which is the fintech arm of e-commerce firm udaan, enables such retailers to make purchases for their stores from a wide array of suppliers on the udaan platform with credit lines provided by its lender partners. Thereby udaanCapital also catalyses kirana commerce on the udaan platform.

“Our mission has been to empower and drive Kirana e-commerce by providing formal credit to the small retailers of our country. We have always believed that the right solution to closing the working capital gap in small retailers lies in taking a trade-centric view to risk management - and just as importantly helping our lender partners take a similar view,” said Chaitanya Adapa, Head – udaanCapital. “In Northern Arc we found a like-minded partner, who shared our vision and came on board at a very early stage. I am very happy to see our partnership hit this milestone of putting productive capital in the hands of 50,000 small businesses.”

Today, more than a third of sales on udaan, which is India’s largest B2B (business-to-business) commerce platform, is powered by udaanCapital. udaanCapital currently facilitates disbursal of over Rs 8,000 crore of credit a year to over 150,000 kiranas and small businesses across the country. The credit limits offered range from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25 lakh and the credit tenures offered are short-term.

“At Northern Arc, we aim to be pioneers in finding innovative solutions to enable finance for MSMEs and the next billion households. We do this directly and through exciting partners like udaan,” said Ashish Mehrotra, MD and CEO, Northern Arc Capital. “We are delighted to have joined forces with udaanCapital since their early days and meeting the credit needs of over 50,000 kirana stores across the country.”

Northern Arc is a financial services platform with a diversified business model that provides credit to MSMEs, households, financial institutions and emerging businesses. Over the past year, it has disbursed over 5 million loans across business loans, personal loans and BNPL facilities, through a completely digital journey. By leveraging its data insights and scorecards, Northern Arc has cumulatively raised over Rs 1 trillion in funds for its clients since the inception of its platform in 2009. Along with its asset management subsidiary that manages seven AIFs (alternative investment funds), the company manages a total AUM (assets under management) of over Rs 9,000 crore.