Mumbai-based rural fintech startup Jai Kisan recently announced that it has secured ₹30Cr in pre-Series A funding round led by Arkam Ventures. The funding round also saw participation from NABVENTURES Fund I,the investment arm of agriculture and rural development institution NABARD. This is NABVENTURES maiden investment in any startup.
The funding round also saw participation from existing investors such as Blume, Prophetic Ventures, and Better Capital along The Chatterjee Group (TCG), Rajiv Sahney (New Vernon Capital), Sanjay Mariwala (Omniactive), and others.
NABVENTURES was launched in May last year with a proposed corpus of over ₹500 crore.
With the new capital, the company plans to invest the capital to hire across roles in operations and process management, as well as invest in its technology platform, as it looks to provide newer financial services offerings.
Commenting on the investment, Rahul Chandra, Managing Director of Arkam Ventures said, “Very few startups have the commanding view of a large untapped space. Even fewer startups have the luxury of tailwinds in these challenging times. Jai Kisan is a rare combination of both of the above along with a unique business model that adds value to multiple participants of the agri supply chain.”
Founded in 2017 by Texas A&M University graduates Arjun Ahluwalia and Adriel Maniego, Jai Kisan is a technology platform which focuses on providing credit as well as a suite of financial products to the rural economy. It partners with equipment dealers, agriculture retailers, collection centers and market linkage platforms, to directly provide credit to farmers, working in the agriculture, poultry and dairy value chain.
“Adriel and I started Jai Kisan to facilitate rightly priced credit (and other financial services) to rural borrowers. Over the past few months, we have built a diverse book while ensuring delivery of credit instantly and more importantly – cheaply, across 10 states including the most backward parts of the country.” said Arjun Ahluwalia, co-founder and CEO of Jai Kisan.
These direct loans to farmers also helps them to build their credit profile and history, easing access to direct loans and financial services for them in the future, he said.
“Jai Kisan is charting a new course in agri-rural digital lending. Even in a covid scenario, it has delivered stellar growth. NABVENTURES would continue to back such tech-driven agri/rural startups which are at the forefront of agri/rural transformation in India,”said Rajesh Ranjan, CEO of NABVENTURES.
“We appreciate the efforts of Jai Kisan to emerge as a frontline agri/rural fintech player on the strength of its tech prowess, low cost of operations along with reasonable security levels,” said G.R. Chintala, Chairman, Nabard.
HrNxt.com Newsdesk has researchers and writers with an excellent domain knowledge about the talent ecosystem, and the business environment. The team keeps a tab on the latest happenings in the ecosystem to bring most relevant news and insights for our readers. You can connect with our newsdesk at newsdesk@hrnxt.com.