Kinara Capital, a fintech for MSMEs, has secured INR 52 crores from Impact Investment Exchange (IIX).
“This investment fund will be disbursed via Kinara Capital’s established HerVikas discounted loan program to an estimated 2500+ women-owned small businesses. The expected impact of the partnership between IIX and Kinara Capital will generate an incremental income of INR 320 crores for women entrepreneurs,” the firm said in a statement.
“The investment from IIX’s Women’s Livelihood Bond Series in our HerVikas program brings fresh impetus to the need of financial inclusion of women entrepreneurs. Empowering women has a strong impact on improving the quality of life for families and achieving gender parity can add 27% to India’s GDP,” said Hardika Shah, Founder & CEO, Kinara Capital. “IIX is a trailblazer in gender lens investing and we are immensely honored to be a part of its ecosystem to create sustainable impact by advancing women entrepreneurs.”
The HerVikas program by Kinara Capital enables ‘her progress’ with an automatic upfront discount of 1% on interest costs on fast, collateral-free business loans in the range of INR 1 lakh to 30 lakhs, the statement added.
IIX’s CEO and Founder, Professor Durreen Shahnaz, said, “Having supported Kinara in one of their initial equity rounds and having watched the company grow steadily and with impact for nearly a decade, we are proud to invest in Kinara Capital again from the proceeds of the third tranche of the Women’s Livelihood Bond Series. At a time when COVID-19 caused governments, investors, and businesses to turn inward and leave behind millions of underserved women, women-led enterprises like Kinara Capital are spearheading COVID-resilience from the ground up by accelerating financial inclusion and empowering women entrepreneurs to be part of the solution for economic recovery. IIX’s Women’s Livelihood Bond Series is doing what no one else dares to do – valuing women and making them a part of the global financial system. But we’re not stopping there. We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries by continuing to expand the Women’s Livelihood Bond Series so that we create truly systemic change that will outlast any pandemic.”
The Women’s Livelihood Bond 3 (WLB3) is part of the USD $150 million Women’s Livelihood Bond (WLB Series), a series of debt securities.
Arya has been a part of the Content & Research Team at Hrnxt.com. She is a keen observer of economic developments, emerging businesses, people in business and keeps a tab on latest happenings in the business environment.