Jai Kisan raises USD 30mn in Series A funding led by Mirae Asset

MUMBAI, 31 MAY 2021: Rural fintech startup Jai Kisan has raised USD 30mn (INR 217 Crores) in a combination of equity and debt in a Series A round of funding led by Mirae Asset. Blacksoil, Stride Ventures, and Trifecta Capital contributed the debt in the round whereas, Veda Corporate Advisors was the exclusive financial advisor to Jai Kisan for the fundraise.

Syngenta Ventures, existing investors Blume, Arkam Ventures, NABVENTURES (NABARD), Prophetic Ventures and Better, other global investors, and prominent HNIs also participated in the round.

Jai Kisan aims to use the proceeds of the fundraiser to bring superior talent to build for Bharat, enhance engineering and data science capabilities, expand into new geographies and start building an on-book portfolio. The company provides digital financial services starting with credit for online and offline, income-generating, rural commerce transactions.

The company has leveraged the captive relationship between the business and the farmer and rural individuals in a B2B2C manner to deploy credit to farmers and rural individuals en masse in a sustainable manner working with 700+ organized and unorganized entities in the space with a cumulative customer base of over 1.5 lakh rural individuals including farmers. By empowering rural businesses through point-of-sale/purchase credit, has helped create scalability for rural businesses and helps deploy low-cost formal credit to farmers and other rural individuals.

With traditional financial institutions approaching rural finance through a one-size-fits-all approach, there is a significant gap in the penetration of financial services which Jai Kisan aims to change by creating and deploying customized, new-age financial products and innovative processes. With the company's initiative, rural individuals and businesses can access financial services in a seamless and digital manner, tailor-made to their needs.

Jai Kisan's Bharat Khata

Jai Kisan launched Bharat Khata in April ’20 - a digital ledger and smart business solution for rural businesses to manage their businesses anytime, anywhere. The app has captured over USD 380mn (INR 2,790 Crores) of annualized GTV run-rate as of March ’21 at over 25,000 storefronts. The company has financed over 15% of the transactions which portrays the monetizability and quality of commerce being captured. The ability to have visibility and virality of high-quality transactions has enabled Jai Kisan to scale business by over 50% in 3 months, with an annualized loan disbursal run-rate of INR 432 crores as of March ’21. The unprecedented growth trajectory stands testament to its capabilities to deploy capital efficiently by focusing on core customer credit needs.

Mirae Asset CEO Ashish Dave said that "The company has always believed in backing companies which aim to become category leaders which are evident from our other investments and we believe Jai Kisan is on the journey of doing so for rural finance.”

Jai Kisan raised USD 1.5 Million in Seed Round Led by Blume Ventures

In March 2019, Jai Kisan had announced that it had raised USD 1.5 million (INR 100 million) in a Seed Round of investments led by Blume Ventures a leading homegrown venture fund, Prophetic Ventures, Better Capital, Astarc Ventures, Harshbeena Zaveri (NRB Bearings), Sanjay Mariwala (OmniActive), and other strategic HNIs and founders of successful technology companies participated in the round.

The Company then intended to use the newly raised funds to extend its financing services to more farmers increasing the loan book size, partner with more lending institutions, expand operations across 4 more states, increase its robust network of channel partners, accelerate customer acquisition and build a team positioned to scale.

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