Fintech startup ftcash raised Rs 50 crores in a Series A funding-round led by global non-profit Accion, Dutch development bank FMO and VC fund IvyCap Ventures. It raised an undisclosed amount from IvyCap Ventures in 2017.

The company, founded by Chandak, Deepak Kothari and Vaibhav Lodha in 2015, provides cash advances to micro merchants. The start-up lends around Rs 3 lakh on an average to small businesses.

The new round of funding will be used to accelerate product development and expand into new geographies, the company said in a statement.

"By using transaction data for credit assessment and leveraging repayments from the ftcash payments platform, ftcash is pioneering a model that can reach over 60 million micro-merchants in India, 96per cent of whom have been underserved by banks and traditional finance companies,” said Sanjeev Chandak, Co-founder and CEO, ftcash.

Chandak said that was inspired by the large potential of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and their role in growth of the economy, evident from his days at Deutsche Bank and Capital One.

ftcash focuses on improving access to credit for informal micro merchants that are largely underserved by using a proprietary algorithm to analyse payments and alternative data for originating loans and deducts collections directly from merchants’ digital payments. It, then, matches merchants’ digital cash flows to credit due dates, increasing the chances of on- time loan payments.

“With micro merchants often struggling to access the financial services they need to grow, ftcash’s innovative use of data and digital platform is making it easier for these businesses to secure the financing they need to thrive,” said Michael Schlein, President and CEO of Accion.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW