Sequoia leads $5 mn Series A round in fintech startup Progcap

New Delhi-based Progcap, which offers financing and supply chain-based solutions for micro and small enterprises,  has raised $5 million (Rs 34.42 crore at the current exchange rate) in a Series A round, led by Sequoia Capital India.

The round also saw participation from MV Nair, chairman of CIBIL and  Sandeep Tandon, co-founder of Freecharge, an official statement said. 

Existing investors GrowX Ventures Fund and Somak Ghosh also participated in the round.

Desiderata Impact Ventures, which operates the two-year-old startup, will use the funds to strengthen operations, ramp up technology backbone and for geographical expansion, Pallavi Shrivastava, co-founder of Progcap, said. 

“”India has multi-layered distribution chains where credit is an important enabler,” Ashish Agrawal, principal, Sequoia Capital India Advisors, said.

“Currently, only large distributors are able to get access to inventory financing through banks and other formal channels.” 

In April this year, the company had raised Rs 7 crore ($1 million then) in a seed round led by GrowX Ventures along with participation of Contrarian Drishti besides angel investors Somak Ghosh and Abhishek Dalmia.

Progcap

Progcap was founded in January 2017  by Shrivastava and Himanshu Chandra. Through its Last Mile Retailer Finance Facility, it  provides collateral-free working capital to micro and small enterprises. 

The company uses proprietary algorithms and non-traditional ecosystem data to create credit scores for customers who fall outside the dragnet of traditional financial institutions. It also offers solutions that digitises the company’s supply chain.

Recent deals in fintech space:

July 2019: Mumbai-based Easy Finance, which operates an online platform for home loans, raised an undisclosed sum in funding from Japan-based Harbourfront Capital.

July 2019: Gurugram-based online SME (small and medium enterprises) lender Indigo raised $21.05 million (Rs 145 crore) in a fresh round of funding from existing investors.

July 2019: Mumbai-based business-to-business (B2B) payments company PayMate raised an undisclosed amount of Series D funding from Visa, Recruit Strategic Partners and Brand Capital.

July 2019: Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal made debt investments in digital lending startup Kissht ($7.2 million)  and microlender Chaitanya India Fin Credit ($3.6 million).

July 2019: Palo Alto- and Mumbai-based financial technology solutions provider Drip Capital raised $25 million (Rs 172.4 crore when reported ) in Series B round of funding, led by Accel Partners.