Founded in 2017 by Pallavi and Himanshu Chandra, the startup provides fast, flexible, and collateral-free loans to small businesses in lower-tier Indian cities, where retailers typically face challenges in accessing working capital.
Progcap, a platform that helps small and medium-sized businesses raise debt, has raised $40 million from Creation Investments and Tiger Global Management, with Google joining as new investor. Existing investor Sequoia Capital India also participated in this round.
The fundraise was an extension of the company’s Series C round and values the company at $600 million. The total amount of funds raised by Progcap as part of its Series C round stands at $70 million. Progcap will use the funding to support its expansion and accelerate product development.
Founded in 2017 by former XLRI Jamshedpur alumni Pallavi Shrivastava and Himanshu Chandra, Progcap lends to businesses that do not otherwise have formal credit records or history. Progcap facilitates the loan while the actual lending is done by its partners-Muthoot Finance, Credit Saison and Star Finserv.
The close of the company’s Series C round comes a year after it raised $25 million in June 2021 led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital as part of Series B. The balance of $30 million of the Series C was raised by the company in October 2021.
Co-founders Srivastava and Chandra said in a statement, “We are delighted that our existing investors have continued to deepen their conviction in Progcap and thrilled that Google has joined us on this journey. Progcap is becoming the core operating engine for all the transactions of its customers, providing them with credit and technology solutions that make their businesses more efficient.”
The company aims to become a full-stack retailer-focused digital bank that digitizes, automates, and eases capital movement across the supply chain to small and medium-sized businesses that have been excluded from the formal financial ecosystem.
In FY22, Progcap reached its goal of recording annualized disbursals of $1 billion, a growth of 4x year on year, the company said. The company competes with other MSME fintech lenders such as Kissht, Indifi Technologies, Lendingkart, Rupifi etc.
“We’re delighted to invest once again behind the Progcap team as they expand their product offering and further serve last-mile retailers in India”, said Tyler Day, Partner at Creation Investments. The startup has facilitated credit disbursals worth over Rs 6,500 crore, working with over 7,00,000 small and medium businesses.
