Kaleidofin, a fintech platform facilitating credit for small & marginal farmers and nano enterprises, has raised $5.3 million in equity funding from impact fund IDH Farmfit Fund.
The investment is expected to support Kaleidofin scale its lending portfolio and expand credit scoring, middleware and risk services through selected partnerships.
Kaleidofin had earlier announced an investment of $13.8 million led by Rabo Partnerships, which also saw investment from existing investors — Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Oikocredit, Omidyar Network India and Flourish ventures. This investment takes the total funds raised by Kaleidofin since inception to $42 million.
Kaleidofin and IDH Farmfit Fund will collaborate to drive financial inclusion by expanding access to financial services for smallholder farmers, including those in dairy, agri-allied sectors, agri workers, and agribusinesses. A key focus of this partnership will be the development of a specialized ki score, a credit health assessment product designed to cater to the unique needs of the agricultural sector.
“Smallholder farmers form an important part of the economy, yet they remain vastly underserved by formal financial services. Through our collaboration with IDH Farmfit Fund, we aim to change this by creating specialised financial products that cater to the unique needs of farmers. ki score agri will help lenders deepen their agri portfolios while improving risk management, ensuring that capital flows efficiently to those who need it most,” Sucharita Mukherjee, Co-founder & CEO, kaleidofin said.
Som Toohey, Investment Director, IDH Investment Management added: “Enhanced underwriting and tailoring of smallholder farmer loans, coupled with more efficient origination and distribution, can catalyse the flow of appropriate credit to this underserved segment across India and other markets. Improving the quality of financial inclusion, encompassing client protection, is critical to increasing both income and climate resilience over time.”
Established in 2017, kaleidofin provides financial solutions for low-income customers/businesses working in the informal economy via the kaleidofin platform. By combining credit health assessment (ki score), middleware rails, risk management dashboards (ki view) and debt capital markets structuring capabilities (ki credit), kaleidofin unlocks finance for informal sector customers from banks and other deep pools of capital.
In India, the platform has unlocked debt of cumulatively over $4.05 billion for over 6.3 million customers and small enterprises working in the informal economy, since 2020.